Abstract
While developing climate change policies, regional governments and agents may have different purposes, follow different strategies, and use different appraisal procedures than those of national governments or other regions within the same countries. Climate change adds an additional source of problematisation to the functioning of traditional nation-states structures, not only at the international level but also with regard to their relations with sub-national agencies. This paper tests this hypothesis by analysing the emergence of climate strategies and capacities in region of Catalonia, north-east Spain, through the use of a novel integrated assessment tool called the ‘climate learning ladder’ that looks at four main dimensions: (1) how perceptions on climate change have evolved in this region since the beginning of the 1990s, (2) what type of incentives or systems of sanctions have triggered climate action, (3) what specific options are available or have been developed, and (4) what new institutional arrangements have been put in place during this time. Results indicate that although in Catalonia distinctive climate appraising processes have been tried, new measures have been implemented and new institutions have been created, not much of a distinctive progress regarding Integrated Climate Governance (ICG) has been achieved. Furthermore, this research shows that so far the main incentives which triggered climate action and innovation have been largely exogenous to the region.
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Notes
The Spanish government developed an important programme of subsidies for renewable energy with the result that in 2008 Spain accounted for 40% of the world demand for solar cells. This was based on a feed-in-law, which started in 2007 that would offer 44 Euro cents per solar kilowatt-hour (Muñoz et al. 2007). Although it was originally envisaged for small producers, the lack of an adequate regulatory framework could not prevent the concentration of the industry. This scheme could not be maintained and had to be reformed and has been criticised for its negative consequences for companies and the employment in this sector (The Economist 2009) although it triggered the implementation of renewable energy programmes that otherwise would have been very difficult to implement.
Personal communication, head of the Catalan Office on Climate Change.
This insight is not new and had already been recognised long ago by Tim O’Riordan and Jill Jager when they commented ‘It is likely that the bulk of climate change politics will have to devolve to the local level if it is to become effective in the informal institutional dynamics of individuals and households’ (O’Riordan and Jäger, 1996:358).
However, much of the literature that looks at these cross-scale institutional linkages, as in the case of the commons, has not specifically addressed the issues of climate mitigation and adaptation (but on the management of particular natural resources) or the interaction between the regional level and those that go beyond the national boundaries.
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Acknowledgments
This research was possible thanks to the work carried out and interaction with other researchers during the EU funded project ADAM—Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies. Supporting EU Climate Policies (www.adamproject.eu; 018476-GOCE) and benefited from earlier reflections from the MATISSE project (www.matisse-project.net) as well as with discussions with the European Sustainability Science group (www.essg.eu). I wish to thank Jill Jäger, Maria Falaleeva, Asunción Lera St Clair and Fiona Thomas for their reactions to this paper and the European Climate Forum (http://www.european-climate-forum.net) and in particular Carlo Jaeger for their support.
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Tàbara, J.D. Integrated climate governance in regions? Assessing Catalonia’s performance using the ‘climate learning ladder’. Reg Environ Change 11, 259–270 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-010-0135-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-010-0135-3