Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policymaking, and Multilevel Governance

Description

Political Science Books

North American policy responses to global climate change are complex andsometimes contradictory and reach across multiple levels of government. For example, the U.S. federal government rejected the Kyoto Protocol and mandatory greenhouse gas(GHG) restrictions, but California developed some of the world's most comprehensiveclimate change law and regulation; Canada's federal government ratified the KyotoProtocol, but Canadian GHG emissions increased even faster than those of the UnitedStates; and Mexico's state-owned oil company addressed climate change issues in the1990s, in stark contrast to leading U.S. and Canadian energy firms. This book is thefirst to examine and compare political action for climate change across NorthAmerica, at levels ranging from continental to municipal, in locations ranging fromMexico to Toronto to Portland, Maine. Changing Climates in North American Politicsinvestigates new or emerging institutions, policies, and practices in North Americanclimate governance; the roles played by public, private, and civil society actors;the diffusion of policy across different jurisdictions; and the effectiveness ofmultilevel North American climate change governance. It finds that although nationalclimate policies vary widely, the complexities and divergences are even greater atthe subnational level. Policy initiatives are developed separately in states, provinces, cities, large corporations, NAFTA bodies, universities, NGOs, and privatefirms, and this lack of coordination limits the effectiveness of multilevel climatechange governance. In North America, unlike much of Europe, climate changegovernance has been largely bottom-up rather than top-down.Contributors MicheleBetsill, Alexander Farrell, Christopher Gore, Michael Hanemann, Virginia Haufler, Charles Jones, Dovev Levine, David Levy, Susanne Moser, Annika Nilsson, SimonePulver, Barry Rabe, Pamela Robinson, Ian Rowlands, Henrik Selin, Peter Stoett, StacyVanDeveer

Author: Selin, Henrik
Binding: TP
Desirability: 1
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
Subject: Public Policy - Environmental Policy