Kyle S Herman

University of Sussex · Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU)

The empirical literature on environmental regulatory-induced innovation is extensive and finds equivocal results , following the seminal works by Lanjouw and Mody (1996) who show a positive innovation effect and Jaffe and Palmer (1997) who largely find a negative effect of regulations on environmental technology innovation. Yet most of the literatu...

Quantitative environmental policy indicators are useful for modeling the impact of environmental policy on the economy. They can be important tools for policy-makers, companies, investors, and researchers alike. Well-crafted environmental policies lead to cleaner environments whilst encouraging innovative behaviour to stimulate green growth and ‘wi...

There has been much interest in green growth and innovation in recent years. The main idea is that domestic green growth policies can provide ‘win-wins’ to both the environment and the economy. But we still know very little about the impact of such policies, especially in developing countries—the ‘Global South.’ The literature remains underdevelope...

The “carbon-based” governance regime, defined as the governance of climate change through a unitary focus on carbon measurement, disclosure, focuses on the measurable success of private, public-private, and “hybrid” approaches to climate governance. Our research finds that, despite a groundswell in private activity, zones of fragmentation among a m...

Recent regulatory interventions are beginning to mandate climate disclosure in listed firms. Although compelling, prior studies demonstrate that firms can symbolically commit to climate and environmental disclosures yet not undertake action. Neo-institutional theory (NIT) suggests that two strategies exist: the legitimacy perspective, which manifes...

Commitments to emissions reductions following the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement have proliferated. Though it is promising that 145 countries have declared a net-zero emissions target, with 33 enshrining this goal into law, comparison of country-level emissions inventories can only be effectively carried out with uniform and consistent dat...

Green growth policies aim to address both climate change and economic growth and are now prevalent throughout many economies. While green growth is sufficiently assessed in qualitative, case-study-based literature, quantitative and cross-country analyses are still limited. In response to this research deficit, our aim is twofold: (1) to develop a c...

Climate performance in publicly traded companies has become an important focus for climate action. Non–state actor–led initiatives have emerged as influential governors in this arena, intended to plug gaps in public climate change regulation. This article addresses the key question, are such non–state led climate initiatives exerting a positive inf...

To understand the effects of climate change policies not only on the environment but also on business and the economy, substantial effort has been devoted to creating climate policy indicators. Such indicators can be useful for addressing a major research question, namely: how do climate policies impact the economy and the environment? Likewise, in...

The development and deployment of environmental technologies (ETs) is critical to avert further environmental destruction, to significantly reduce emissions and to halt climate change. Innovation in ETs is particularly pertinent in newly industrializing countries (NICs), since they will soon overtake developed countries in terms of aggregate greenh...

Innovation and diffusion of renewable energy technologies is critical to meeting the demands of climate and environmental policies. An emerging body of literature shows that innovators respond to aggregate global demands for climate change mitigation technologies. Indeed, innovation and trade in renewable energy technologies has accelerated as coun...

While the Global North is historically responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) are expected to overtake developed country emissions in the coming years. At the same time, NICs are climbing the ladder of the global economy, increasing their competitiveness on the global stage...

This study conducts machine‐aided textual analysis on 725 corporate sustainability reports and empirically tests whether climate ‘talk’ within the sampled reports translates into performance ‘walk’, proxied by changes in greenhouse gas emissions over a 10‐year period. We find mixed results for the ‘talk–walk’ hypothesis, depending on the type of ta...

Global greenhouse gas emissions are the main contributor to anthropocentrically-induced climate change and have risen 41% since 1990. We are still yet to reach peak emissions. A large share of those emissions result from private sector activity. At the same time, the private sector possesses major resources which should be harnessed to scale up fun...

Climate change presents the international community with a unique challenge that we argue is comparable in scope and breadth to challenges posed by global public health threats. In this discussion paper we examine the respective global roles of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Despite imp...

This chapter investigates how technology has played a double-edged sword in global environmental politics. Sometimes, end-of-pipe technologies have been success stories, and other times have only extendeded the lifeline of highly polluting sectors when cleaner technological options were on the table. Actor incubency, policy windows, and issue linka...

This discussion paper examines technology transfer (TT) policies embedded within the 14 clean-tech paradigm of major global agreements. In particular, the policies of the UN's Framework 15 Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are critiqued. This analysis leaves out domestic TT and 16 intra-firm or multinational (private) TT. This empirical analysi...

National innovation systems (NISs) are defined by their social, economic, and political results. Many actors, institutions and processes are present within a NIS. Strong innovation policies stemming from a particular NIS effectively bridges key actors together within the innovation system. The design (various forms of policy) and result (various ty...

The development and implementation of renewable energy power plants is important for Chile in order to increase energy security, supply remote mines with electricity, and eventually decrease energy costs. The Chilean government has promoted renewable energy and attracted Foreign Direct Investment FDI) to develop large-scale renewable energy project...

The development and implementation of renewable energy power plants is important for Chile in order to increase energy security, supply remote mines with electricity, and eventually decrease energy costs. The Chilean government has promoted renewable energy and attracted Foreign Direct Investment FDI) to develop large-scale renewable energy project...

Renewable energy technology has come under fierce criticism around the world through the duration of the Global Financial Crisis. Opponents of a state-oriented renewable energy policy infer that the high cost of such technology has negative macroeconomic effects on the economy. This paper investigates the broader economic effects of renewable energ...

This article compares the exceptional Danish wind energy innovation system with the system employed by the US government. The underlying assumption about innovation systems in the US is that they are technologically driven, and past technological advances can be built upon leading to break-through innovations. However in Denmark, innovation was dri...

This paper demonstrates how using the word "carbon" within global warming debates severely impedes lobbyists in favor of building stronger renewable energy policies in the European Union (EU). Within the EU, carbon is widely used to speak about many of the perils of climate change, global warming, energy policy, and contingent subject matters. In p...

I invoke Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism outlined in "The Concept of the Political" to better understand the European Union (EU) as a governmental institution. It is my contention that the EU is a liberal institution, with the sole intent to drive economic policy while ignoring identity, similar to what Schmitt rails against in his critique o...

In this paper I discuss the theory of power structures written by Michel Foucault in “Docile Bodies: Discipline”1 and relate this to George Bush’s Foreign policy agenda (roughly around 2001) in accordance with the Cheney Report described by Michael Klare in his book “Blood and Oil.”