[Séminaire d'axe] All it takes is political will? Governments and the adoption of regulatory climate policies

This presentation explores why and how elected governments in both majoritarian and consensual political systems adopt “hard” climate policies—such as command-and-control instruments and regulatory measures—despite the political risks involved. While prominent studies suggest that stringent climate policies are more likely when political institutions such as proportional electoral rules can shield governments from electoral backlash and facilitate compensation for cost-bearing groups, I propose an additional mechanism explaining the adoption of regulatory climate policies: the access of climate policy entrepreneurs to key executive positions either in a coalition or a single-party cabinet, where they can negotiate their policy preferences into adopted measures. These actors strategically adapt their policy approaches to their political system's institutional opportunities and constraints. To illustrate this argument, I draw on 74 in-depth interviews with policymakers and trace the political processes that led to two significant regulatory reforms in the building sector: Germany’s 65 per cent renewable energy requirement for heating systems, included in the 2023 reform of the Building Energy Act, and France’s 2021 adoption of minimum energy performance standards for rented homes, as part of the Climate and Resilience Law. This study allows us to understand in a more fine-grained way the relevance of political institutions on governments’ capacity to take on stringent climate policies and the importance of strategic policy entrepreneurs in pushing for these reforms.

Speaker

Nina Lopez Uroz is a PhD researcher in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence. Her research focuses on the intersection of environmental politics, comparative political economy, and public policy. Her PhD thesis examines the institutional conditions, political-economic factors and political processes that drive the expansion of climate mitigation policies. She focuses specifically on regulatory measures aimed at the electrification and renovation of the building sector in France and Germany.

Chair 

Philippe Bezes, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS