气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Taking stock of Climate Change Acts in Europe: living policy processes or symbolic gestures?

CCPortal

DOI	10.1080/14693062.2019.1623164
	Taking stock of Climate Change Acts in Europe: living policy processes or symbolic gestures?
	Nash S.L.; Steurer R.
发表日期	2019
ISSN	14693062
起始页码	1052
结束页码	1065
卷号	19 期号:8
英文摘要	Since the UK introduced a Climate Change Act (CCA) in 2008, similar legislation has followed in a number of states, with each having a slightly different take. What unites these examples is that they all represent framework legislation that aims to facilitate climate change mitigation by creating continuous policy processes whereby mechanisms for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are developed and implemented. This article is concerned with the extent to which they are living policy processes or rather symbolic gestures. We analyse seven European CCAs with regard to GHG emission reduction targets, planning/implementation mechanisms, and feedback/evaluations prescribed by the laws. These three features correspond with three aspects of climate policy integration (CPI): interpretations of CPI as a norm; CPI as a process of governing; CPI as a policy outcome. We show that CCAs address all three aspects of CPI and constitute living policy processes, although to varying extents. However, CCAs are also policy processes in that they are part of a political system, affected by political forces external to the legislation, positively and negatively. Key policy insights CCAs can provide a normative basis for policymaking on climate change at the national level, especially through quantitative emission reduction targets. Whilst CCAs can bring some stability and predictability to policymaking on climate change (mainly because legislation is more difficult to amend or remove than policy strategies), they are still vulnerable to political developments. Most CCAs lack either short/medium-term (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden) or long-term (Austria) targets. Given EU Member States’ aim to decarbonise in the next three decades and the Paris Agreement's global goal of pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C, states need to find ways to guide this process. One approach could be the inclusion of short-term, medium-term and long-term targets in their CCAs. Since sanctioning mechanisms are lacking across all the CCAs analysed here, it is not clear what will happen if legally binding targets are not met. Just as it is difficult to imagine speed limits and speed cameras without accompanying penalties, it is hard to imagine how CCAs without sanctions can deliver decarbonization. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
英文关键词	Climate change mitigation; climate change policies; climate policy frameworks
语种	英语
scopus关键词	climate change; emission control; environmental policy; European Union; greenhouse gas; policy approach; policy making; quantitative analysis; Austria; Denmark; Finland; Ireland; Sweden; United Kingdom
来源期刊	Climate Policy
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/153372
作者单位	Institute of Forest, Environmental and Natural Resource Policy, Department of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Nash S.L.,Steurer R.. Taking stock of Climate Change Acts in Europe: living policy processes or symbolic gestures?[J],2019,19(8).
APA	Nash S.L.,&Steurer R..(2019).Taking stock of Climate Change Acts in Europe: living policy processes or symbolic gestures?.Climate Policy,19(8).
MLA	Nash S.L.,et al."Taking stock of Climate Change Acts in Europe: living policy processes or symbolic gestures?".Climate Policy 19.8(2019).