Global Equity and Climate Change Policy in Germany An Ambivalent Relationship

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Franklin Richard
5 years ago
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1 Germany An Ambivalent Relationship 1. Guiding Questions What are the political and practical implications of the normative concept of equity for German climate policy? Thesis: Input and output legitimacy & performance of the state/government are primarily judged in terms of welfare effects, procedural and distributive justice How does global climate change policy, informed by global equity, relate to the existing policy concept ecological modernization (EM) and sustainable development (SD)? Thesis: Leading policy concepts/paradigms matter in the actual realization/implementation of universal norms/rhetoric Are there conflicts between global/cosmopolitan values (global justice) and national norms (public interest), and how are they resolved? Thesis: In conflicts between cosmopolitan norms and national public interest the latter will dominate (equity between countries vs. equity within a country) 2. Empirical Focus & Method Support of global climate challenge policy by the public the main actor groups government business NGOs etc. Local Agenda 21 activities (Social) Cost- benefit distribution of global climate protection policy in Germany (equity within Germany) Analysis of various representative surveys, documents and studies

2 3. Concept of Equity Equity = Distributive environmental justice/fairness concerns the social distribution of benefits and burdens related to environmental policy Regressive distributional effects the socially weaker groups bear a relatively greater burden Global atmosphere = global common good equal per capita share common but differentiated responsibilities

3 4. Main Characteristics of SD, EM and Public Interest Equity/Justice intergenerational intragenerational international Reputation Embeddedness in social norms & institutions (Germany) SD EM Public Interest opportunistic core stance low importance constituents (enlightened self-interest) high (inside nation) good (except some expert groups) good low importance mixed low medium high Degree of familiarity (Germany) low medium high Emphasis on South/North aspects strong low low Global climate challenge high relevance neutral/high medium Geographic scope global national/ national international Societal system change structural change modernization neutral (?) Kind of policy redistributive neutral distributive/ redistributive Main clientele the poor environmental national citizens proponents Priority goal Global welfare/ fair distribution poverty of national ecology welfare national environmental welfare/ society s wellbeing

4 5. Findings 1 Public Interest: meta-norm for legitimization/criticism of government s performance distributive justice is a core element scope: national citizens 2 Leading Paradigm in Environmental Policy: Government: at programmatic level: combination of SD and EM in practice: EM ENGOs: SD (but emphasizing the environmental pillar EM) DENGOs: SD Business Groups/Trade Unions: EM Public: EM 3 Equity and Climate Change Policy climate change: high awareness, support of climate policy equity between nations: global common good, fair share, salient responsibility, ambiguity with responsibility for historical emissions (grandfathering) equity inside Germany: rarely discussed (except: business, trade unions), poorly investigated public almost uninformed about equity effects efficiency and effectiveness concerns dominate willingness to pay for climate-related policies: relatively weak and decreasing over time public subsidies for renewable energies: relatively high acceptance

5 Germany An Ambivalent Relationship 5. Findings (contd.) 4 Local Agenda 21 Activities the principle of global fairness: acknowledged but rarely informing concrete climate-/energy-related activities local (problem) perspective dominates developing countries: marginal role idea of SD: frequently interpreted as local public interest distributional effects: rarely thematized 5 General Germany s responsibility to support developing countries is highly accepted public strongly committed to progressive national climate policy German climate policy leads, in balance, to economic, social, environmental benefits for the population

6 6. Discussion 1 Climate policy: high acceptance of government s policy = uninformed consent lack of information on equity effects 2 Equity: (vague/rhetoric) acceptance of global fairness principle 3 Support of governmental climate policy is result of various interrelated factors: win-win expectations/assumed positive cost-benefit balance positive experience with precautionary principle salient role of air pollution control policy in Germany/positive experiences situational context variables economic situation and its prospects international energy dependency/vulnerability small climate catastrophes political culture/welfare state model elimination of unfair inequalities solidarity with the poor high acceptance of redistributive policies the context factors are developing unfavorably with respect to global equity policies decreasing incentives for proponents of a progressive climate policy to set equity issues on the political agenda EM concept will gain in political importance

7 and finally: Why is Germany s climate policy, compared to other countries, (relatively) progressive international negotiations: driver, support of demanding goals effective CO ² emissions, renewable energies Reasoning about reasons self-interest norm-/value-driven public/ngo pressure (bottom-up) green government (top-down) epistemic communities/advocacy coalitions favorable problem structure and sufficient capacities positive path dependency

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