Climate Governance in the Developing World E-Book

David Held

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 616

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Since 2009, a diverse group of developing states that includes China, Brazil, Ethiopia and Costa Rica has been advancing unprecedented pledges to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, offering new, unexpected signs of climate leadership. Some scholars have gone so far as to argue that these targets are now even more ambitious than those put forward by their wealthier counterparts. But what really lies behind these new pledges? What actions are being taken to meet them? And what stumbling blocks lie in the way of their realization?

In this book, an international group of scholars seeks to address these questions by analyzing the experiences of twelve states from across Asia, the Americas and Africa. The authors map the evolution of climate policies in each country and examine the complex array of actors, interests, institutions and ideas that has shaped their approaches. Offering the most comprehensive analysis thus far of the unique challenges that developing countries face in the domain of climate change, Climate Governance in the Developing World reveals the political, economic and environmental realities that underpin the pledges made by developing states, and which together determine the chances of success and failure.

Leseprobe

Climate Governance in the Developing World

Climate Governance in the Developing World

Edited by

David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag

polity

Copyright © David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag 2013

The right of David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag to be identified as Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2013 by Polity Press

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Polity Press350 Main StreetMalden, MA 02148, USA

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ISBN: 978-0-7456-7047-8

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Contents

Contributors

Preface

Abbreviations

1.     Editors’ Introduction: Climate Governance in the Developing World

David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag

Part I   Asia

2.     A Green Revolution: China’s Governance of Energy and Climate Change

David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag

3.     The Evolution of Climate Policy in India: Poverty and Global Ambition in Tension

Aaron Atteridge

4.     The Dynamics of Climate Change Governance in Indonesia

Budy P. Resosudarmo, Fitrian Ardiansyah and Lucentezza Napitupulu

5.     Low Carbon Green Growth and Climate Change Governance in South Korea

Jae-Seung Lee

Part II  Americas

6.     Discounting the Future: The Politics of Climate Change in Argentina

Matías Franchini and Eduardo Viola

7.     Controlling the Amazon: Brazil’s Evolving Response to Climate Change

David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag

8.     Making ‘Peace with Nature’: Costa Rica’s Campaign for Climate Neutrality

Robert Fletcher

9.     A Climate Leader? The Politics and Practice of Climate Governance in Mexico

Simone Pulver

Part III  Africa

10.   Resources and Revenues: The Political Economy of Climate Initiatives in Egypt

Jeannie Sowers

11.   Ethiopia’s Path to a Climate-Resilient Green Economy

David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag

12.   Reducing Climate Change Vulnerability in Mozambique: From Policy to Practice

Angus Hervey and Jessica Blythe

13.   Reaching the Crossroads: The Development of Climate Governance in South Africa

Lesley Masters

Index

Contributors

Fitrian Ardiansyah has over fifteen years’ experience in the fields of natural resource management, climate change and energy. At present, he is finalizing his doctoral research at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He is also the Program Development Director for Pelangi Indonesia and Fellow at the International League of Conservation Writers. In previous years, he was a Program Director for Climate and Energy (WWF-Indonesia) and an expert member of the Indonesia Forest Climate Alliance and the Indonesian Official Delegates to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He has received Australian Leadership and Allison Sudradjat Awards from the Government of Australia.

Aaron Atteridge is a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden. His work focuses on different aspects of climate policy, with a particular emphasis on understanding the interaction between international policy processes and the needs of developing countries. This includes analysis of climate politics in different countries and of climate finance, as well as the development of guidance on national adaptation planning and the examination of traditional biomass energy economies in developing countries. Among his previous roles, he has worked as a Senior Policy Officer on climate change and energy issues for the New South Wales government in Australia.

Jessica Blythe is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, Canada. She investigates the dynamics of change in social-ecological systems and has worked with fishing communities in southern Africa since 2004. Her current research explores how coastal communities respond to environmental change in Mozambique in order to contribute to the development of adaptive actions that promote human well-being and ecological health.

Robert Fletcher is Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development in the Department of Environment, Peace, and Security at the United Nations mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. His research interests include climate change, conservation, development, ecotourism, environmental governance, globalization, and resistance and social movements. He has conducted field research concerning these topics in a number of sites in North, Central and South America.

Matías Franchini is a member of the Brazilian Research Network on International Relations and Climate Change at the University of Brasilia, and a member of the Department of Environment at the University of La Plata, Argentina. He is a PhD candidate and holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Brasilia. His main research interests are climate change, global environmental governance and Latin American studies. With Eduardo Viola and Thaís Ribeiro, he is co-author of Sistema Internacional de Hegemonia Conservadora: Democracia e Governança Global na era da Crise Climática (International System with Conservative Hegemony) (2012).

David Held is Master of University College, Durham, and Professor of Politics and International Relations at Durham University, UK. Among his most recent publications are Gridlock: Why Global Cooperation is Failing When We Need It Most (2013), The Governance of Climate Change (2011), Cosmopolitanism: Ideals and Realities (2010), Globalisation/ Anti-Globalisation (2007), Models of Democracy (2006), Global Covenant (2004), Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture (1999) and Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (1995). His main research interests include the study of globalization, changing forms of democracy and the prospects of regional and global governance. He is a Director of Polity Press, which he co-founded in 1984, and General Editor of Global Policy.

Angus Hervey is a PhD candidate and Ralph Miliband Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He is an expert on environmental issues in southern Africa, and has published a number of articles on land use change, deforestation and the impacts of climate change in the region. With David Held and Marika Theros, he is co-editor of The Governance of Climate Change: Science, Economics, Ethics and Politics (2011).

Jae-Seung Lee is a Professor in the Division of International Studies, Korea University. He is currently an Editor-in-Chief of Korea Review of International Studies and Vice-Director of the Institute of Sustainable Development. He also serves as a member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Presidential Secretariat (Foreign and Security Affairs). During the year 2011–12, he joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Center for East Asian Studies of Stanford University as a visiting scholar. He holds a BA in political science from Seoul National University and an MA (1993) and PhD in political science from Yale University.

Lesley Masters is a Senior Researcher within the foreign policy and diplomacy programme of the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) at the University of South Africa. Her research focuses on environmental diplomacy, South Africa’s foreign policy, the international politics of climate change and the governance of natural resources. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Leicester, UK, and joined the IGD as a researcher in 2008 as part of its Multilateral Programme.

Eva-Maria Nag received her PhD on Indian political thought from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK. She has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses on political theory, ethics and public administration, and South and East Asian politics at the LSE, the School of Oriental and African Studies, King’s College London and the American University in London, UK. She has also worked on global corporate issues with the Bertelsmann Foundation (Germany) and Tomorrow’s Company (UK). She is one of the founding editors of Global Policy, an innovative and interdisciplinary journal bringing together world-class academics and leading practitioners to analyse both public and private solutions to global problems and issues. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, UK, where she works on comparative political thinking.

Lucentezza Napitupulu is an Affiliated Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Economics, University of Indonesia. Having worked in climate change policy for the last eight years, she has provided consulting services for numerous stakeholders, including the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Finance in Indonesia. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from North Carolina State University, USA, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Environmental Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. Her research interests are in environmental management and community governance.

Simone Pulver is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara, USA. She received her doctorate in Sociology from UC Berkeley and also holds an MA in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley, as well as a BA in Physics from Princeton University, USA. Her research investigates organizational responses to environmental challenges. She has been analysing international climate politics for the past fifteen years, with a particular focus on transnational corporations and developing economies. Before joining UC Santa Barbara in 2009, she was the Joukowsky Family Assistant Research Professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, USA.

Budy P. Resosudarmo is an Associate Professor and Head of the Indonesia Project at the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. His research interests include determining the economy-wide impact of environmental policies and understanding the political economy of natural resource utilization. In 2005, he edited The Politics and Economics of Indonesia’s Natural Resources, and in 2009, he co-edited Working with Nature against Poverty: Development, Resources and the Environment in Eastern Indonesia. He received his PhD in Development Economics from Cornell University, USA.

Charles Roger is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia and Liu Scholar at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, Canada. His research focuses on transnational governance, global environmental politics and international political economy. He holds a BA from Concordia University, in Montreal, Canada, and an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. His research has been supported by the Liu Institute for Global Issues, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Jeannie Sowers is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire, USA. Her research focuses on the politics of environment and development in the Middle East and North Africa. She is the author of Environmental Politics in Egypt: Activists, Experts, and the State (2013) and co-editor of The Journey to Tahrir: Revolution, Protest, and Social Change in Egypt (2012). She has published articles in Climatic Change, Development and Change, Journal of Environment and Development and Middle East Report and is on the editorial boards of Global Environmental Politics and Middle East Report.

Eduardo Viola is a Full Professor at the Institute of International Relations, University of Brasilia, Senior Researcher of the Brazilian Council for Scientific Research and Chair of the Brazilian Research Network on International Relations and Climate Change. He has published four books and more than one hundred journal articles and book chapters. He has been visiting professor at several international universities – Stanford, Colorado, Notre Dame and Texas, USA, and Amsterdam, Netherlands – and a consultant with Brazilian Ministries – Science and Technology, Education, Defence and Environment. He has also been a member of the Committee on Global Environmental Change of the Brazilian Academy of Science.

Preface

The problem of climate change cannot be overstated. It is an issue of global significance with far-reaching transnational as well as intergenerational consequences for the life chances of people across the world. The brute fact is that greenhouse gas emissions are rising at an alarming rate and we have done far too little to reverse this shocking trend. We seem to be racing towards a tipping point after which the risks of climate change become tragic, irreversible realities. Having said this, there have been many important efforts, locally, nationally and globally, to address this threat. Some have been more promising than others, but where there have been some successes it is important to understand how this has occurred and to try and build on these relative achievements. By understanding what works and what does not we shed light on a path to more effective climate governance.

The responsibility for addressing climate change has conventionally been placed on the shoulders of the industrialized world. Indeed, this notion is more or less enshrined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and, especially, in the Kyoto Protocol. Since the dawn of industrialization, now-developed states have contributed immensely to global stocks of greenhouse gas, and they must take action to mitigate future climatic changes and reduce the effects of those already imminent. However, with the rapid development of Asia and many other regions of the world, developing countries are now becoming major contributors to climate change as well. China has become the largest single emitter of greenhouse gases; Brazil, India and Indonesia now produce more greenhouse gas emissions individually each year than Japan or Germany; and South Korea and Mexico’s emissions outstrip those of France and Italy. As a result, the prospects for addressing climate change without major efforts by states in the developing world are rapidly diminishing. It is essential for them to shift their emissions trajectories downwards as they grow.

It is striking and encouraging that some developing countries have established sophisticated responses to climate change. This is a trend that warrants much greater attention. China, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and others are increasingly on the frontline of climate policymaking and can be considered global leaders in a number of significant ways. Some of the actions they are taking are comparable to the finest efforts made by the wealthier, industrialized world. Others, such as Argentina and South Africa, are clearly laggards, and most developing states probably come closer to their poorer record. Yet this observation gives rise to an important question: how are some developing countries becoming more ambitious and successful than others in responding to climate change? Since many – perhaps most – developing countries remain unprepared for climate change and face immense political and economic barriers, the answer to this question is not obvious. This book explores this issue by closely analysing the experiences of twelve different countries in three regions of the globe, in Asia, the Americas and Africa. By examining these countries, it offers the most comprehensive study thus far on climate governance in the developing world.

The research undertaken in this book initially developed as a result of a generous grant provided to the editors by L’Agence Française de Développement (AFD). We are very grateful to the AFD for having provided the resources to conduct this work, which was undertaken over a three-year period and involved extensive travel, interviews and data gathering in several countries. While the original AFD-funded research focused on only a subset of those countries covered in this book, it revealed empirical complexities that had gone largely unnoticed and, in our view, presented a number of interesting puzzles. Thus, we expanded the project’s scale and scope by bringing a series of additional researchers on board in order to examine these new dimensions of climate policymaking across a wider range of countries.

The editors would like to thank the many people who have contributed to the development of this volume and the research that underpins it. Above all, the contributors have been more than generous in sharing their expertise for the benefit of this book. Working alongside them has been a learning experience in the best sense. Many more were involved in producing this book in other ways. For their support and/or for very helpful comments and discussion at various stages of research and writing, we would like to thank Richard Balme, Satishkumar Belliethathan, Jean-Marc Coicaud, Olivier Charnoz, Björn Conrad, Robert Falkner, Tony Giddens, Tom Hale, Jin Xiaoting, Vannina Pomonti, Eduardo Viola, Robert Wade, Anna Wishart, Zha Daojiong and Zhang Haibin. Angus Hervey and Kyle McNally are also to be thanked for providing important research support, as well as Aida Kowalska, Danielle Da Silva and Dave Steinbach. Finally, we would like to thank everyone at Polity for all they did to turn the manuscript into the book that is now in your hands.

David Held

Charles Roger

Eva-Maria Nag

5 November 2012

Abbreviations

AAP

Africa Adaptation Programme

ABD

Arab-British Dynamics Company

ADII

Association of Comprehensive Indigenous Development

AFE

average fuel economy

AIJ

activities implemented jointly

AMCEN

African Ministerial Conference on the Environment

ANC

African National Congress

AOI

Arab Organization for Industrialization

AOSIS

Alliance of Small Island States

AU

African Union

AusAID

Australian Agency for International Development

AWG-LCA

Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action

BAPPENAS

National Development Planning Agency

BASIC

Brazil, South Africa, India, China

BAU

business-as-usual

BCCF

Brazilian Climate Change Forum

BRICS

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

C40

C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

CAHOSCC

Conference of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change

CANAECO

National Ecotourism Chamber of Commerce

CANE

Coalition Against Nuclear Energy

CAS

Chinese Academy of Sciences

CATIE

Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza

CBD

Convention on Biological Diversity

CCA

Center for Atmospheric Sciences

CCGC

National Board for the Coordination of Disaster Management

CCS

carbon capture and sequestration

CDF

Clean Development Fund

CDM

Clean Development Mechanism

CER

certified emissions reduction

CFE

Comision Federal de Electricidad

CFL

compact fluorescent lamp

CI

Conservation International

CICC

Inter-Ministerial Commission on Climate Change

CIM

Inter-Ministerial Committee for Climate Change

CIMGC

Inter-Ministerial Commission on Climate Change

CMA

China Meteorological Administration

CNA

National Environment Commission

CO

2

e

carbon dioxide equivalent

COFEMA

Federal Council of the Environment

COMEGEI

Climate Change Office

CONCAMIN

Mexican Federation of Chambers of Commerce

COP

Conference of the Parties

CRE

Energy Regulation Commission

CRGE

climate-resilient green economy

CSE

Centre for Science and Environment (ch. 3);Conservation Strategy of Ethiopia (ch. 11)

CSP

Country Studies Program

CTGC

Technical Council for Disaster Management

CTL

coal-to-liquid

DANIDA

Danish International Development Agency

DEA

Department of Environment

DEAT

Department of Environment and Tourism

DME

Department of Minerals and Energy

DNPI

National Council on Climate Change

DOE

Department of Energy

EACP

East Asia Climate Partnership

EC

European Community

ED

Environmental Defense

EDRI

Ethiopian Development Research Institute

EEAA

Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency

EECCHI

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Clearing House Indonesia

EIUG

Energy Intensive User Group

ENCC

National Strategy on Climate Change

EPA

Environmental Protection Authority

EPACC

Ethiopian Programme of Adaptation to Climate Change

ESCO

energy service company

EU

European Union

FCPF

Forest Carbon Partnership Facility

FDI

foreign direct investment

FONAFIFO

National Fund for Forestry Financing

FORESTA

Forest Resources for a Stable Environment

FRELIMO

Front for the Liberation of Mozambique

FUNDECOR

Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Cordillera Volcánica Central

FYP

Five-Year Plan

G8

Group of 8

G20

Group of 20

G77

Group of 77

GDP

gross domestic product

GEF

Global Environment Facility

GGGI

Global Green Growth Institute

GHG

greenhouse gas

GIR

Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center

GIZ

German Agency for International Cooperation

Gt

gigatonne

GTP

Growth and Transformation Plan

GW

gigawatt

GWh

gigawatt-hours

IBA

important bird area

IBAMA

Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources

IBSA

India, Brazil, South Africa

ICCSR

Indonesia Climate Change Sectoral Roadmap

IEA

International Energy Agency

IFCA

Indonesian Forest Climate Alliance

IFI

international financial institution

IGCCC

Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change

IMCCC

Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change

IMF

International Monetary Fund

INAM

National Meteorological Institute

INBio

National Biodiversity Institute

INC

Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (ch. 9); Initial National Communication (ch. 12)

INE

National Ecology Institute

INGC

National Institute for Disaster Management

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPM

integrated pest management

IREP

Integrated Rural Energy Programme

JI

Joint Implementation

JICA

Japan International Cooperation Agency

KBIZ

Korean Federation of Small and Medium Business

KCCI

Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry

KCER

Korea Certified Emissions Reduction

KEF

Korea Employers Federation

KITA

Korean International Trade Association

KP

Kyoto Protocol

kWh

kilowatt-hour

LDC

least developed country

LED

low emissions development

LEDS

Low Emissions Development Strategy

LOI

letter of intent

LSE

London School of Economics and Political Science

LTMS

Long Term Mitigation Scenarios

LUCF

land use change and forestry

LULUCF

land use, land use change and forestry

MCT

Ministry of Science and Technology

MDM

Democratic Movement of Mozambique

MEMR

Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources

MENA

Middle East and North Africa

MICOA

Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Affairs

MINAG

Ministry of Agriculture

MINEAT

Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications

MMA

Ministry of the Environment

MME

Ministry of Mines and Energy

MOARD

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

MoE

Ministry of Environment

MOFA

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MOFED

Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

MOST

Ministry of Science and Technology

MOTC

Ministry of Transport and Communication

MOTI

Ministry of Trade and Industry

MOWE

Ministry of Water and Energy

MPD

Ministry of Planning and Development

MRV

measuring, reporting and verification

Mt

megatonne

MW

megawatt

NAMA

Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action

NAPA

National Adaptation Programme of Action

NAPCC

National Action Plan on Climate Change

NBCI

National Biomass Cookstove Initiative

NCCCC

National Coordination Committee on Climate Change

NCCCLSG

National Climate Change Coordinating Leading Small Group

NCCS

National Climate Change Strategy

NDRC

National Development and Reform Commission

NEA

National Energy Administration

NEC

National Energy Commission

NEEDS

National Environment, Economic and Development Study

NELG

National Energy Leading Group

NEPA

National Environmental Protection Agency

NGO

non-governmental organization

NLCCC

National Leading Committee on Climate Change

NMA

National Meteorology Agency

NRDC

Natural Resources Defense Council

NREA

New and Renewable Energy Authority

ODA

official development assistance

OECD

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

PARP

Poverty Reduction Action Plan

PASDEP

Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development for Ending Poverty

PBMR

Pebble Bed Modular Reactor

PCA

Partnership for Climate Action

PCGG

Presidential Committee on Green Growth

PCN

Paz con la Naturaleza

PCSD

Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development

PECC

Special Climate Change Programme

PES

payment for environmental services

PND

National Development Plan

PNMC

National Policy on Climate Change

PPCR

Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience

PPP

purchasing power parity

PQG

Five-Year Plan

PRI

Institutional Revolutionary Party

PROALCOOL

National Alcohol Programme

PSA

Pago por Servicios Ambimentales (payment for environmental services)

PV

photovoltaic

R&D

research and development

RAN-GRK

National Action Plan for Greenhouse Gases Reduction

REDD

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

REDD+

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus

RENAMO

Mozambique National Resistance

Rs

Indian rupees

RWA

Rural Women’s Assembly

SACP

South African Communist Party

SAGARPA

Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development

SANCO

South African National Civic Organization

SAP

structural adjustment programme

SAPCC

State Action Plan on Climate Change

SCT

Ministry of Communications and Transport

SDPC

State Development Planning Commission

SEA

Strategic Environmental Assessment

SECOFI

Ministry of Commerce and Industrial Development

SEDESOL

Ministry of Social Development

SEDUE

Ministry of Ecology and Urban Development

SEMARNAP

Ministry of Environment

SEMARNAT

Ministry of Environment

SENER

Ministry of Energy

SEO

State Energy Office

SIDS

small island developing state

SINAC

National System of Protected Areas

SME

small and medium-sized enterprise

SRE

Ministry of Foreign Relations

SSTC

State Science and Technology Commission

SUP

Structural Adjustment Programme

SWEG

Elsewedy for Wind Energy Generation

TERI

The Energy and Resources Institute

TFCA

Tropical Forest Conservation Act

TNA

Technology Needs Assessment

TNC

The Nature Conservancy

TPES

total primary energy supply

UAE

United Arab Emirates

UK

United Kingdom

UKP4

President’s Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight

UN

United Nations

UNAM

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

UNCED

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

UNEP

United Nations Environment Programme

UN ESCAP

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UN-REDD

United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

UNWTO

United Nations World Tourism Organization

US

United States (of America)

USAID

United States Agency for International Development

VA

voluntary agreement

VCO

voluntary carbon offset

WBCSD

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

WRI

World Resources Institute

WWF

World Wide Fund for Nature

1

Editors’ Introduction: Climate Governance in the Developing World

David Held, Charles Roger and Eva-Maria Nag

FOR most of the period since the early 1990s, the locus of action on climate change has largely been in the industrialized world. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol is, for example, the most ambitious international effort to establish quantitative limits on countries’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. During the first commitment period, it obliged a group of thirty-seven countries to reduce their emissions collectively to 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008–12. Yet this only applied to industrialized states, known as ‘Annex I’ countries in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Developing countries, known as ‘non-Annex I states’,1 were effectively excluded from any binding obligations. Within the industrialized world, the European Union in particular has been at the forefront of efforts to govern climate change. The European Emissions Trading System, the world’s first multinational emissions trading scheme, was launched in 2005, and a range of other Europe-wide climate policies have been enacted since then. Many European states, like the United Kingdom, Denmark and Germany, have also established policies to promote the adoption of renewable sources of energy, created policies to encourage energy efficiency, or implemented national carbon taxes designed to put a price on carbon and abate emissions.

Action in the industrialized world is, of course, not confined to the European continent and the British Isles. Outside of Europe, Japan has created a range of climate mitigation policies, New Zealand operates a mandatory emissions trading system, and Australia now plans to establish one as well. National policies in North America are much less developed and coherent, but individual states, provinces and municipalities in the United States and Canada have taken the lead and created their own climate change policies despite the dearth of action at the national level. California, for instance, has set a goal of reducing its emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and has established a statewide cap-and-trade system to meet it; Quebec and British Columbia (in Canada) have implemented carbon taxes, while Alberta operates a baseline-and-credit emissions trading scheme; and a number of cities in both the United States and Canada have established climate action plans. Finally, many sub-national governments in North America have also worked together through regional carbon trading schemes such as the Western Climate Initiative and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Even though the above developments in the industrialized world have been insufficient to meet the challenge of global warming, they have traditionally constituted the ‘frontline’ in the global battle against climate change. By contrast, developing countries since the early 1990s have consistently maintained that they have little obligation to take immediate action. In the international climate change negotiations, they have proven deeply reluctant to adopt binding mitigation targets similar to those adopted by industrialized states under Kyoto. Doing so, they have argued, would reduce the space for economic growth and development, which are viewed as overriding priorities. Further, since currently developed states did not have to curb emissions during their own industrialization experience, it would be patently unfair for developing countries to have to do so, even if this were for the ‘global good’. They should be allowed to emit more in order to meet their legitimate socio-economic and developmental needs. Thus, the domestic climate change policies of most developing countries have traditionally been thought to be much less proactive than those in the industrialized world. While they occasionally took actions that had the side-effect of abating emissions (by reducing energy subsidies, for example; see Reid & Goldemberg 1998), one early review of climate change policies in low income countries by an analyst from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) summed up its findings by explaining that ‘most developing countries are neither prepared to address nor interested in climate change’ (Gómez-Echeverri 2000). Climate considerations have, for the most part, hardly figured in plans for economic development, policymaking has been limited, and those actions that have been taken have often been driven by multilateral and transnational actors from wealthier countries, with little domestic ownership (Olsen 2006).