Climate Policy and Political Parties

Completed

Not Energy Related
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Politics and International Studies)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation)

Professor RJ Ladrech
Research Institute for Social Sciences
Keele University

Standard

ESRC

01 July 2013

30 June 2015

24 months

£244,692

West Midlands

Grants

Professor RJ Ladrech, Research Institute for Social Sciences, Keele University

Professor NT Carter, Politics, University of York

Despite the scientific and economic arguments in favour of radical action to mitigate climate change, the policy responses of most governments have not yet matched the scale and urgency of the problem. The major political parties that dominate government and opposition in Western Europe democracies have generally been reluctant to prioritise climate issues. Yet there is evidence that if parties do start to compete to be the 'greenest' party, then governments will be more likely to adopt progressive environmental policies. So the role of parties is crucial, yet we know very little about how parties formulate their positions in climate change.The broad aim of this project is to understand and explain the way mainstream political parties in Western Europe develop their positions on climate policy. It will identify the key factors that influence whether or not mainstream parties are willing to embrace climate issues. It will examine the impact on party policy development of domestic factors, including internal party politics, environmental and business interests and energy prices, and external factors, notably European Union legislation but also international commitments, such as the Kyoto Protocol. In particular, it will analyse differences between centre-left and centre-right parties in their approach to climate politics and policies. The findings will contribute significantly to our understanding of the politics of climate policy development itself, at both the national and EU levels.Several data collection methods will be utilised. The researchers will interview key individuals in mainstream centre-left and centre-right parties in six EU member states and in the European Parliament and they will analyse party manifestos, policy documents, expert surveys and opinion polls covering all elections since 2000.Two main groups of academics will benefit from the research. First, political scientists interested in comparative party politics, public policy (especially climate policy), European politics and the European Union. Second, the broad, interdisciplinary body of scholars studying climate governance, notably from all the social sciences but including natural sciences and the humanities. Scholars often make assumptions about the actions of national governments based on very little understanding of the party politics that influence how and why governments adopt their positions on climate policy. By providing insights into the way in which parties grapple with competing interests and pressures as they develop and try to influence climate policy, this project will benefit academics interested in climate governance from a wide range of disciplines.A wide range of practitioners should benefit from the research, including climate policy-makers at all levels of government, business and environmental pressure groups, think-tanks and individual members of political parties across the EU. In particular, policy-makers in national ministries responsible for climate policy in the six country cases, parliamentary committees and environmental agencies, can benefit from understanding how political factors influence party positions on climate change, and thereby adjust their policy development process to incorporate these insights. International policy-makers, such as the European Commission and UNEP, can benefit from a better understanding of the political dynamics that underpin the development of national climate policy when, for example, they are drafting internal EU directives or engaging in global negotiations. Environmental and business interest groups will gain better knowledge of the internal dynamics within major political parties, which may benefit their lobbying strategies.

13/01/15