Feeling the Heat: The Politics of Climate Policy in Rapidly Industrializing Countries

With overtaking of the US by China as the world’s largest emitter in the mid-2000s and the emergence of the group of advanced developing countries called BASIC during the Copenhagen conference, rapidly industrializing countries have taken centre stage in international climate policy. So far, only journal articles or single book chapters (see e.g. Garnaut et al., 2008 or Michaelowa and Michaelowa, 2009) or grey literature in the negotiation context have been published, but a good overview in the form of a book has been lacking. Bailey and Compston have brought together 10 chapters on rapidly industrializing countries in three sections by a mix of contributors, mostly young political science researchers. The first one provides the context through four chapters on generic climate policy challenges for this country group, their positions in the climate negotiations, and how the EU and the US deal with these countries. The second section consists of four country case studies on Brazil, China, India and Russia. An extended chapter provides conclusions. Bailey and Compston see climate policy in emerging countries as an issue of ‘high political toxicity’ and see generally a tendency to avoid actions that go beyond business-as-usual. On the basis of policy network theory, they provide a taxonomy of ‘resource exchange’, where access to decision-making process is traded by policymakers and interest groups. Bailey and Compston find four key strategies: unilateral policy action if the government feels to be able to ignore interest groups, providing concessions in other policy fields, changing preferences of other actors or introducing policy instruments that allow shifting the terms of resource exchange to the detriment of the interest group. Barker’s introductory chapter provides an overview about recent climate policy and half-page abstracts of the energy and climate policy situation in the countries covered by the case studies. Then, a series of short paragraphs on key climate policy topics follows in a somewhat haphazard sequence: the appropriateness of cost–benefit analysis, additionality determination for CDM projects, funding of adaptation, technology transfer support, fuel subsidy reduction and emissions trading. Davenport sketches the history of UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol negotiations and the positions taken by emerging economies. A nice section on the voluntary Argentinean target of the late 1990s is worth reading. A section on reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (somewhat misplaced) and on the emergence of BASIC during the Copenhagen negotiations precedes a discussion on regime effectiveness and equity. Afionis and Bailey discuss the diplomacy of the EU towards the four countries covered in the book, highlighting the tug-of-war with Russia regarding the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. They summarize that collaboration works best where co-benefits from emissions mitigation activities are harnessed. Harris does the same for the US; unfortunately, his analysis of the collaboration with India suffers from an overvaluation of US initiatives. He rightly stresses that US collaboration initiatives with the four countries are ‘high in number, but low in quality’ (p. 87). Schröder’s study of China provides emissions forecasts and nicely describes the convoluted power relations between different ministries and government agencies. She makes it very clear that China’s Copenhagen pledge is just business as usual. An excellent section presents the key factors that have led to the development of Chinese climate policy. The national growth target of 8% does not allow a firm commitment to reduce emissions. Moreover, China has