Explaining the variation of climate policy ambition across countries

Ye, Yitong (2024) Explaining the variation of climate policy ambition across countries. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Focusing on the differences in climate policy outputs of countries, I seek to develop a measure of climate ambition at the state level, and to understand its drivers. Because of the challenges brought by conceptual divergence, cross-national measurements, and methodological limitations, a comprehensive measure of ambition is still lacking in the field of comparative climate policy studies. The research therefore develops a new measure and validates it by examining the variation in climate policy ambition across countries.

The new index, which I call the Climate Policy Ambition Index (CPAI) measures climate ambition in terms of both depth and breadth of climate policy outputs, which provides a theoretical foundation for operationalising comparisons of ambition. To validate the index, I construct a comparative dataset covering 35 countries from 1990 to 2020. The index summarises complex policy information into a single measure level, which allows us to study relevant determinants and also contributes new data to comparative climate policy studies. Through a newly developed pluralistic method, it demonstrates that use of the measure produces robust findings. Combined with analyses of important outlier cases, the analysis provides a relatively complete picture of what determines climate policy ambition.

I aim to contribute to the comparative climate policy studies in four aspects. First, it provides an output perspective to interpret the multifaced nature of climate ambition, thereby expanding the avenues for comparing levels of ambition across different frameworks. Second, the CPAI provides valuable panel data for future comparative studies. Third, it develops and applies a novel method to evaluate theoretical expectations about determinants of climate ambition, which stands in contrast to solely case-oriented studies results of which often depend on case selection. Finally, in seeking to explain the cross-national variations of ambition, it delineates potential strategies for enhancing average ambition levels, which could be a useful tool for policymakers

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Supervisor's Name: Munro, Dr. Neil and Reinsberg, Professor Bernhard
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84688
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 12 Nov 2024 14:51
• Last Modified: 12 Nov 2024 14:56
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84688
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84688