1. ISA 2012: San Diego Charles Laffiteau University of Texas at
Dallas Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD?
2. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD?
3. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is
an international institution whose mission is to promote policies
to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the
world. Moreover, one of the most important self- declared aims of
the OECD is to cooperate and harmonize policies among its members
while also ensuring that the environmental implications of economic
and social development are taken into account.
4. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? In the environmental policy arena, the OECD has been an agent
of policy diffusion by promoting regulatory schemes among its
member states to deal with a wide range of environmental issues
such as water and air pollution, acid rain and pesticides like DDT.
On a global level the OECD was also very instrumental in forging an
international treaty (1987 Montreal Protocol) to deal with ozone
depletion caused by CFC refrigerants and aerosols.
5. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Over the past 50 years the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
has increased by 25%. 160,000 years of glacial ice core and
anthropological evidence shows that CO2 levels and temperatures
rise in unison Melting permafrost in Siberia, Canada and Alaska has
led to destabilization of buildings and homes and costly tax payer
financed relocations of native peoples.
6. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Soot, methane & hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, to
contribute 30% of the human- caused rise in global temperatures 25
% of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year is
caused by deforestation. CO2 gas emissions from coal, oil and gas
fossil fuel burning represent another 45%
7. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Most of the Kyoto Protocols Annex 1 nations (which are
committed to reduce their CO2 emissions) are also members of the
OECD. Since the more technologically developed nations of the OECD
were expected to take the lead in reducing their CO2 emissions, all
most all of the OECD nations agreed to meet specific GHG emission
reduction targets agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol by 2012. Mexico,
South Korea, Chile and Israel are the only OECD nations that are
not Annex 1 nations while the former Communist nations of Belarus,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine and the
Russian Federation as well as the European principalities of
Liechtenstein and Monaco are the only Annex 1
8. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Good News Costs are known & technologies already exist
for cutting CO2 emissions and adapting to higher temperatures
Farming in higher latitudes would also improve Bad News But farmers
in lower latitudes and in arid regions of the world would suffer
More air conditioning = more CO2 energy use Shoreline communities
have to be
9. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Over the last twenty years virtually every OECD nation has
also promoted and even subsidized the production of biofuels as a
way to reduce their CO2 carbon emissions. Yet in spite of the
abundant evidence that shows using grain to produce biofuels has at
best a marginal impact on reducing overall CO2 emissions and a
decidedly negative impact on food supplies and prices, biofuel
policies persist in some OECD
10. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? So why have some OECD nations failed to embrace other more
effective types of environmental policies to deal with climate
change such as building more nuclear power plants, or the use of
New Environmental Policy Instruments (NEPI) like carbon taxes, eco
labeling, tradable CO2 emission permits and industry wide
environmental management systems? Why do some OECD nations still
continue to support biofuels made from grain as a policy
11. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Why, given the strongly similar socio- economic profiles of
OECD member states on some of the key issues that the policy
literature suggests would lead to policy diffusion and convergence;
such as economic structures, levels of education, GDP and styles of
governance, has there been such a wide variation in the types of
environmental policies OECD nations have adopted as well as the
effectiveness of these policies in reducing the CO emissions of
individual
12. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? The Climate Skeptic Perspective
13. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Climate skeptics aside, the initiative for climate change
policy action stills lies with the OECD states because no one
expects a global deal on CO2 emissions without a significant shift
in the policy position of the OECD states. So in an attempt to
answer this research question, I have conducted a literature review
of environmental politics and policy literature as well as the
literature on policy diffusion, transfer and convergence to see
what, if any, explanations might exist that explain why
environmental policy diffusion seems to be
14. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Literature dealing with how national cultures and values
influence national policies has also been reviewed to determine
what might be the key cultural factors or values that explain the
stalling of environmental policy diffusion among the states of the
OECD in this policy area.
15. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Overall, the environmental politics and policy literature
suggests that complex interactions between a number of different
elements influence environmental policy at the global level.
Authors like Young, Schofer and Hironaka contend it is
international institutions that have a substantial impact on
improving environmental policy outcomes, while others like Princen
and Finger say it is the influence
16. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? But there appears to be no clear cut answer to the question
of what influences environmental policy making at the global level.
It could be NGOs, international institutions, national (states)
factors or public discourse. The research problem is that the
literature on the development of climate change policies is still
immature and has primarily been focused on following and seeking to
explain global negotiations
17. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Based on a number of key factors cited in the policy
diffusion, policy transfer and policy convergence literature such
as; international institutions and norms, similarities in
democratic governance institutions, industrial development and per
capita GDP as well as membership in the same trade (WTO, EU, NAFTA)
and economic (OECD) organizations, the policy literature suggests
that these nations environmental policies should also be
18. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Marvin Soroos notes that the difficulty in dealing with
climate change is the fact that CO2 and some of the other GHGs are
generated by activities that are fundamental to modern societies,
in particular those of the energy, manufacturing, transportation
and agriculture sectors. Marvin S. Soroos. The Endangered
Atmosphere: Preserving a Global Commons. (Columbia: University of
South Carolina Press. 1997.): 277
19. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? But Tews et al also cite the influence of regional ties, due
at least in part to cultural similarities, in their analysis of
policy diffusion writing that the nearly simultaneous policy
adoption of energy/carbon taxes in the Scandinavian countries had
been co-ordinated by the Nordic Council. Kerstin Tews, Per-Olaf
Busch and Helge Jorgens. The diffusion of new environmental policy
instruments. European Journal of Political Research (Vol. 42 No. 3,
2003): 586
20. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Lenschow et al concluded that new ideas, principles and goals
impinge first and foremost on national culture. Therefore,
countries that share important aspects of their cultural
foundations might be expected to more quickly adopt similar ideas,
principles and goals than countries that are culturally less close
to each other. Andrea Lenschow, Duncan Liefferink and Sietske
Veenman. When the birds sing: A framework for analysing domestic
factors behind policy convergence. Journal of European Public
Policy (Vol. 12
21. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? The first question one might ask regarding the effect
cultural values might have on environmental policies is; Why might
culture matter? Culture matters precisely because of the influence
it has on the personal values and views of citizens raised in a
particular society. National and ethnic cultures are thus
distinguished in their degree of regulation of behavior, attitudes,
and values, the domain of regulation, and the consistency and
clarity of regulation and tolerance of other cultures. David Tse,
Kam-hon Lee, Ilan Vertinsky & D. Wehrung. Does Culture Matter?
A Cross-Cultural Study of Executives' Choice, Decisiveness &
Risk
22. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Since variations in nations cultural values appear to have an
impact on policies, I would expect to see national cultures which
exhibit high levels of individualism adopt environmental policies
which minimize the regulatory role of government and are more
sensitive to the potential negative economic impacts their climate
change policies might have on certain economic sectors. But in
countries with national cultures which favor collectivist cultural
values, I would expect them to adopt environmental policies which
emphasize the regulatory role of government and are less
sensitive
23. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Australia Austria Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark
Finland France GermanyGreece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Japan
Luxembourg Chile Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland
Portugal SlovakiaSouth Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United
Kingdom United States -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
65 70 75 80 85 90 Reduct in CO2 emison from 2008 to 2009 0 10 20 30
40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Individualism Cultural Dimension Effect of
Cultural Values on CO2 Emissions
24. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? (Cultural Dimension of Individualism) (Un-standard.
coefficient) (Standard. coefficient) (p Value) -.4879 .42 .0186
Constant 67.2 N 31 Adjusted R-square .1482
25. Why has environmental policy diffusion stalled within the
OECD? Therefore, based on this literature review, I argue that the
political conundrum that confronts the policy makers of the OECD
states is not due to questions about what types of climate change
policies will be most effective in reducing the CO2 emissions of
OECD nations. I contend that the most likely reason why the
diffusion of environmental policies has stalled in the OECD is due
to the fact that certain types of fairly effective environmental
climate