Syllabus: POLS3670: Comparative Public Policy and Administration

Climate change is one of the central policy challenges of the 21st century. Since the United Nations Framework Convention of 1992, countries have attempted to formulate and develop innovative policies to address this complex issue. This course examines the decision-making process and policy instrument choice made by various jurisdictions in Canada, the United States, and the European Union in the context of ongoing political debates surrounding the issue of climate change. The principal objective is to familiarize students with the relevant literature in political science, public policy and climate change policy and with the different options (regulation, voluntarism, and market-based approaches) available to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Finally, proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing and explaining policy instrument choice and their implementation using the theories and methods of political science.

2008

In the past decade climate change has become one of the world's biggest public policy issues. Ten years ago no one would have predicted that the Nobel Peace prize would be awarded to 10,000 or so climate scientists (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and a populariser (Al Gore) of its possible impacts. In this Policy Brief three contributors examine the policy issues of climate change from a global (Will Steffen), regional (Luca Tacconi) and a national perspective (Frank Jotzo). Collectively, they offer a range of insights that will be of use to policymakers and all those interested in the climate-public policy dimension.

2004

• Het bijeenbrengen en evalueren van relevante wetenschappelijke informatie ten behoeve van beleidsontwikkeling en besluitvorming op het terrein van klimaatverandering; • Het analyseren van voornemens en besluiten in het kader van de internationale klimaatonderhandelingen op hun consequenties. Het betreft analyse-en assessmentwerk dat beoogt een gebalanceerde beoordeling te geven van de stand van de kennis ten behoeve van de onderbouwing van beleidsmatige keuzes. Deze analyse-en assessmentactiviteiten hebben een looptijd van enkele maanden tot ca. een jaar, afhankelijk van de complexiteit en de urgentie van de beleidsvraag. Per onderwerp wordt een assessmentteam samengesteld bestaande uit de beste Nederlandse experts. Het gaat om incidenteel en additioneel gefinancierde werkzaamheden, te onderscheiden van de reguliere, structureel gefinancierde activiteiten van het consortium op het gebied van klimaatonderzoek. Er dient steeds te worden uitgegaan van de actuele stand der wetenschap. Klanten zijn met name de NMP-departementen, met VROM in een coördinerende rol, maar tevens maatschappelijke groeperingen die een belangrijke rol spelen bij de besluitvorming over en uitvoering van het klimaatbeleid. De verantwoordelijkheid voor de uitvoering berust bij een consortium bestaande uit RIVM/MNP, KNMI, CCB Wageningen-UR, ECN, Vrije Universiteit/CCVUA, UM/ICIS en UU/Copernicus Instituut. Het RIVM/MNP is hoofdaannemer en draagt daarom de eindverantwoordelijkheid.

2013

This special issue contributes to extant empirical scholarship assessing governmental capacity to meet significant policy challenges, in this case those related to climate change adaptation. The study includes detailed examination of five policy sectors-finance, infrastructure, energy, forestry, and transportation-in two countries, Canada and the United States-in order to determine what kinds of governance arrangements and analytical capacities exist in this area, how they are changing (if at all), and how they interrelate with the status and evolution of climate change outcomes in each sector. The articles provide a comprehensive sampling of policy network structure and behavior, organizational mandates and resources, and actual job duties and training of policy actors across these sectors at both the federal and subnational level of government.

Climate Policy in Denmark, Germany, Estonia and Poland, 2019

Journal of Human Ecology

The centrality of public policy to human governance has been theoretically examined in this paper. In doing this, its core issues that have long attracted the attentions of scholars and practitioners all over the world were analytically perused giving relevance to the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats operating within the environmental space that usually surrounds the policy process, and its executors. Consequent on this, the indispensability of the environment and its multidimensional forces to a problem-free public policy process are identified giving recognition to their futuristic implications.

Policy issues can be divided into two categories: those already on the public policy agenda, and those that are not. If an issue is already on the public-policy agenda, it has a sufficiently high profile, and a formal process is likely to be in place. If an issue is not on the public-policy agenda, the job of the stakeholders/community is to provide information and education, and to take other steps to raise awareness and get it on the agenda. According to Gerston (1997), for an issue to appear and remain on the public policy agenda it must have sufficient.