STV4341 ¨C Comparative Environmental and Climate Politics

Course content

Environmental problems and climate change are becoming so severe that they are affecting human wellbeing and threatening the very human survival. In order to fix these problems, individual action is insufficient and we need political interventions. Understanding how various political institutions and actors can facilitate or hamper environmental and climate action can help us design policy interventions necessary to tackle large scale environmental problems. In this?course, we will discuss why countries respond to environmental problems and climate change differently. First, we will talk about the nature of environmental problems and challenges associated with commitments to solve environmental problems and climate change. Second, we will discuss collective action theory and how to use it to analyze current small- and large-scale environmental problems. We will delve into the role of the state in tackling collective action problems and cover the basics of environmental and climate policymaking. Third, we will talk about the role of different political institutions in shaping countries responses to environmental problems and climate change. Among these institutions, we will discuss the role of regime type, comparing democratic and authoritarian responses to environmental problems and climate change, bureaucratic quality, corruption, rule of law, and institutions shaping state-society relations. Fourth, we will analyze the role of public support in environmental and climate policymaking and drivers of public support, including individual and external factors.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

• Have an in-depth knowledge about and understanding of various sources of environmental problems
• Have an in-depth understanding of and be able to explain collective action theory and social dilemmas and their implications for solving environmental problems
• Have a solid understanding of the role of the state in environmental and climate governance and the environmental and climate policymaking process
• Have a solid understanding of the challenges that environmental problems and climate change pose for democratic governments
• Have an in-depth understanding of how political institutions shape countries¡¯ responses to environmental problems and climate change, including regime type, quality of government, state-society relations, people¡¯s values, and public support for environmental and climate policies
• Know of main data sources on environmental and climate policies, environmental and climate outcomes, and environmental values for an independent empirical analysis

Skills:

The students will be able to:

• Critically assess political institutions as sources of and potential solutions to environmental problems and climate change
• Apply collective action theory to analyze various small-scale and large-scale environmental problems
• Use institutional theories