The Failures of American and European Climate Policy

Loren R. Cass

Description

In this timely work, Loren R. Cass argues that international norms and normative debates provide the keys to understanding the evolution of both domestic and international responses to the threat of global climate change. Ranging from the early identification and framing of this problem in the mid 1980s through the Kyoto Protocol's entry into force in 2005, Cass focuses on two normative debates that were critical to the development of climate policy—who should bear primary responsibility for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and what principles would guide these reductions. He examines why some nations, but not others, have met their commitments, and concludes that while many states affirmed the international norms, most did not fully translate them into domestic policy. Cass offers an index to measure the domestic salience of international norms and compare the level of salience across states and within states over time, and uses it to assess the European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

1. Climate Policy and the Domestic Salience of International Norms 

2. Issue Framing, Norm Emergence, and the Politicization of Climate Change (Villach to Geneva)

3. International Norms and the Politics of Emission Reduction Commitments (Chantilly to Rio)

4. The Domestic Political Salience of International Norms? (Rio to Berlin) 

5. Domestic Conflict and International Normative Debates (Berlin to Kyoto) 

6. Rhetoric and Reality: The US vs. the World?  (Kyoto to Marrakech) 

7. Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• International relations

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791481172
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Failures of American and European Climate Policy

International Norms, Domestic Politics, and Unachievable Commitments

L OREN R. C ASS

THE FAILURES OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN CLIMATE POLICY

SUNY series in Global Environmental Policy Uday Desai, Editor

THE FAILURES OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN CLIMATE POLICY

International Norms, Domestic Politics, and Unachievable Commitments

L OREN C R. ASS

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Cass, Loren R., 1968– The failures of American and European climate policy : international norms, domestic politics, and unachievable commitments / Loren R. Cass. p. cm. — (SUNY series in global environmental policy) Includes bibiographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6855-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Climatic changes—Government policy—United States. 2. Climatic changes—Government policy—Europe. I. Title. II. Series.

QC981.8.C5C377 2006 363.738'740973—dc22

ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6855-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2005033338

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Contents

Climate Policy and the Domestic Salience of International Norms

Issue Framing, Norm Emergence, and the Politicization of Climate Change (Villach to Geneva)

International Norms and the Politics of Emission Reduction Commitments (Chantilly to Rio)

The Domestic Political Salience of International Norms? (Rio to Berlin)

Domestic Conflict and International Normative Debates (Berlin to Kyoto)

Rhetoric and Reality: The United States vs. the World? (Kyoto to Marrakech)

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

v

1

19

53

93

123

163

219

233

257

261

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CHAPTER ONE

Climate Policy and the Domestic Salience of International Norms

Climate change emerged as a major political issue in the late 1980s. As a recently identified environmental threat, the science was not well under- stood, and the economic consequences were uncertain. Scientists, political leaders, business executives, and the general public had to examine the threat, evaluate its potential economic and ecological implications, and develop strategies to respond both domestically and in cooperation with other states. The international and domestic responses to climate change present an important opportunity to analyze the process of problem definition and policy response in both a comparative and longitudinal context. By the late 1980s, even though every developed country acknowledged that climate change, at a minimum, required additional study and potentially demanded coordinated international action to address the threat, there was still significant variation in the domestic political responses and foreign policy positions adopted by the developed states. What explains this variation? The conventional answer to this question is that differences in national cost-benefit calculations of the domestic effects of climate change and the policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions explain the variation. The potential economic effects of climate change, as well as the redistribu- tive consequences of policies to address it, have heavily influenced both the international negotiations and the domestic policy debates. However, the rationalist material explanation does not appear to provide a sufficient expla- nation for the variation. Several states accepted emission reduction commit- ments that would be extremely difficult to achieve, and other states rejected commitments that would appear to be easy to meet. The larger normative context of the climate negotiations appears to have influenced the positions adopted by many states. The domestic and international deliberations pro- duced contentious normative debates related to how political leaders should respond to the problem. The international and related domestic responses to climate change provide an important opportunity to explore the interre- lated processes of international norm emergence and domestic political

1

2

THE FAILURES OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN CLIMATE POLICY

responses to a new problem. To what extent did the debates over norms influence state interests and behavior, and conversely to what extent did domestic politics affect the emergence of international norms? Norms are defined as collective expectations about the proper behavior 1 for a given actor. Most international relations scholars accept that norms exist, but there has been a growing debate surrounding the questions of when and how international norms affect state behavior. Materialist approaches to international relations theory have tended to treat norms as merely reflecting the interests and power positions of the dominant states. From this perspec- tive, powerful states promote norms to justify and legitimate their preferred policies. It is the underlying pursuit of material interests that explains the process of norm selection and affirmation. The most powerful states create incentive structures that provide benefits for the affirmation of preferred norms and costs for norm violation. Thus, norms have no independent effect on national interests or behavior; they are tools utilized by the dominant states to pursue their interests. However, constructivist and liberal scholars have challenged the exclusive focus on material interests. They argue that actors do not define their interests exclusively in material terms, but rather they pursue a complex mix of interests that reflects normative as well as material founda- tions. Ideas matter. The social construction of the problem and the process of determining appropriate responses profoundly affect the formation, evolution, and pursuit of national preferences. The constructivist literature on international norms has tended to emphasize the role of persuasion and social learning among political leaders in the process of international norm emergence. However, recently several scholars have begun to focus on the relationship between domestic politics 2 and international norms. Particularly in international environmental affairs, it is typically not sufficient for political leaders to be persuaded of the ap- propriateness of a norm for it to alter state behavior. Rather, the norm must become embedded in domestic political discourse and eventually be incor- porated into the foreign and domestic policies of the state. National leaders play a vital role in this process, but in most cases the norm must be accepted by domestic political actors for it to significantly alter national behavior. This suggests that domestic institutional structures, political culture, and historically contingent choices will be critical intervening variables in the translation of international norms into domestic policy. International norm emergence is by definition a process of social in- teraction. National leaders as well as private norm entrepreneurs compete to shape norms. International norms develop concurrently with domestic and foreign policy formulation. The processes are intimately connected. States seek to establish international norms that are consistent with domestic norms and interests in order to minimize adjustment costs. Norm entrepreneurs

Climate Policy and the Domestic Salience of International Norms

3

seek to alter international norms as a means to influence domestic policy. It is thus important to view the contested process of norm emergence as a two- level game involving both domestic and international actors. The theoretical focus of this book is not primarily on the process of international norm emergence but rather on the relationship between international norms and domestic policy. Which norms will be translated into domestic policy and why? When is a norm likely to influence the formulation of domestic and foreign policy responses to climate change? These questions point to 3 the problem of determining domestic norm salience. Norm salience refers 4 to the norm’s level of domestic political influence. To what extent does an international norm constrain national behavior or create obligations for action? To what extent do political actors appeal to the norm to justify domestic policies or to block policy changes? In other words, how influential is the norm in shaping national political dialogue and behavior? The starting point for studying norm salience is to analyze domestic political rhetoric. Rhetorical norm affirmation provides early evidence of the promotion of a preferred norm or the acknowledgement of an emergent in- ternational norm, which may later be more fully transcribed into domestic institutional structures and policies. However, it may also represent the cynical use of norm affirmation to deflect political pressure and avoid concrete action. It is thus necessary to evaluate behavior as well as rhetoric to gauge the domestic salience of the emergent norm. Analyzing the connections among international and domestic forces in the development of climate policies touches upon a number of important domestic policy areas, including energy, trans- portation, commerce, taxation, and foreign policy. Analytically linking the large number of actors, policy areas, and multiple levels of analysis is a daunt- ing task. However, in order to gauge domestic norm salience, it is essential to evaluate the incorporation of international norms into the domestic and for- eign policy responses to climate change across the full range of these policy areas, and it is the ability to evaluate these complex relationships that provides the foundation for evaluating the forces affecting domestic norm salience. Both foreign and domestic strategies are essential to effectively address the threat of climate change. International agreements create pressure on countries to fulfill their international commitments and provide a mecha- nism for coordinating domestic efforts. However, meaningful international agreements to reduce GHG emissions require effective domestic measures. The close connection between international commitments and domestic policy provides an opportunity to analyze the relationships among national rheto- ric, international negotiating stances, and domestic policy. The focus of this study is on the climate policies pursued by the European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States between 1985 and 2005. The four political entities and twenty year history of climate policy provide both