Dancing with the Ambitions: Paris Agreement and Climate Change Mitigation

• In Event: Climate Change and International Collaboration

Abstract

Paris Agreement (PA) aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius. Under the PA, countries are required to outline their self-determined policy ambition for emissions reduction in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Although practically all countries commit to reaching the Paris landmark (below 20 C) globally, some act as climate leaders, others behave as followers, and some others turn out to be climate laggards. As a result, surrounding environmental politics and governance, there is a substantial variation in climate policy ambitions for mitigating climate change across countries. Thus, a question emerges: What explains this variation? Or why do some countries opt for higher policy ambition for emissions reduction while others opt for lower? Following cross-country regression analysis methods, I explore how certain national political institutions, economic conditions, and environmental and external factors play a role in determining policy ambition for emissions reduction. Results show that democracy enables governments to opt for higher climate policy ambition. Resource capacity has a strong positive effect on policy ambition. Country's vulnerability to climate change, and the level of fossil fuel consumption have significant effects on policy ambition. Results also suggest that external financial support namely foreign direct investment (FDI) has minimal effect on emission reduction targets.

Author

• M. Aynal Haque, University of Connecticut