Sequenced Climate Policies May Have Political Gain

Gov. Jerry Brown closing remarks on the climate symposium (Photo – California Air Resources Board).

Climate change is a tough political nut to crack, given entrenched ideological and financial resistance to transitioning to a clean economy.

By Ethan Elkind

But what if strategic climate policies, sequenced carefully over time, can help divide and minimize this opposition?

A Berkeley Law colleague, Eric Biber, along with co-authors of German and American economists, political scientists and legal scholars, just published an article in Nature Climate Change describing such strategic sequencing, using Germany and California’s stories as examples and evidence of success.

The researchers describe four key barriers to climate policy:

1. Concern over high costs
2. Lack of supporting coalitions for climate action
3. Weak governing institutions to implement policy
4. Concern about “free-riding” jurisdictions that won’t take action if others are already moving forward (and bearing the costs)

To address these barriers through smart policy, they recommend:

1. Focusing on incentives and support for clean technology to lower costs, while phasing in mandates slowly to minimize price shocks at the outset
2. Exempting politically powerful groups from some mandates to lessen opposition, linking climate benefits with other “co-benefit” outcomes (like green jobs and reduction in toxic air pollution), and concentrating benefits among powerful interests who will lobby to keep the policies in place
3. Carefully phasing in implementation work with competent agencies first and then rewarding those agencies that respond well to the challenge
4. Forming multi-jurisdiction coalitions of climate actors that can coerce and encourage free-riding jurisdictions to join

As more jurisdictions adopt policies to combat climate change, we’ll have more case studies and examples to draw from for research like this, which will hopefully inform efforts around the world. Because while effective policies are needed, climate leaders also need to be strategic about which ones they pursue to overcome opposition both in the short and long term.

Ethan Elkind directs the climate program at UC Berkeley Law, with a joint appointment at UCLA Law. His book “Railtown” was published by the University of California Press.