Pitfalls in comparing Paris pledges

Sam S. Rowan ()
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Sam S. Rowan: University of Oxford

Climatic Change, 2019, vol. 155, issue 4, No 1, 455-467

Abstract: Abstract The Paris pledges are unique documents in climate governance that outline what each country intends to do to combat climate change. Often, these documents contain headline greenhouse gas percentage reduction targets that appear to summarize countries’ contributions to mitigation. This is a boon for comparative climate policy research. However, I show in this paper that the Paris pledges require detailed interpretation to be comparable. I demonstrate the risks in comparing these targets by re-visiting a recent studying linking national public opinion to the stringency of countries’ mitigation goals. I develop new indicators that better account for the structure of the targets and show in replications that the original finding is inconsistent with the underlying data. I conclude by drawing lessons for studying the Paris pledges.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-019-02494-7

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