National Governance and the Global Climate Change Regime (review)

In National Governance and the Global Climate Change Regime, Dana R. Fisher embarks on the ambitious task of explaining the basis of "different national responses to the potential global governance of climate change" (p. 2), with a focus on the responses of Japan, Netherlands, and the United States to the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Fisher concurs with a large number of legal and international relations scholars in recent years that "the national level is the base of global environmental policy making" (p. 4). Most scholars, however, have failed to adequately probe the array of interactions among domestic actors that ultimately determine national responses to global environmental regimes such as the Kyoto Protocol.

Fisher proposes a broader orientation, utilizing a concept she terms "the global environmental system (GES)" (p. 15). The GES encompasses "the mediation of interrelated domestic actors," the interaction of states with other states and international organizations, and each state's history and global political, economic, and environmental characteristics (p. 16).

On the basis of a quantitative analysis to assess the impact of several indicators on carbon dioxide, Fisher concludes that, contrary to the expectations of environmental sociologists, economic indicators, such as gross domestic product do not have significant effects on CO₂ emissions. Rather, nearly three quarters of the variance across industrialized nations in CO₂ emissions per capita are attributable to policy choices. Fisher's focus for the remainder of the book is on the influence of four independent variables (the state, the market, civil society, and science) on climate policy decision making in the United States, Japan and the Netherlands. Information on these factors was primarily obtained through extensive interviews of key players in each respective state.

Japan's decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and its efforts to implement its emissions reduction mandates through mechanisms such as a new energy policy and greenhouse gas inventories reflect these factors. The Japanese state is strong because of the almost uninterrupted governance by the Liberal Democratic Party over the past 50 years (which Fisher attributes primarily to a strong cultural commitment to social harmony) and has made a commitment to supporting Kyoto. Japan accepts climate change science as reflected in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. Finally, there is a close and collaborative relationship between the state and industry. While Japan's climate change regime fairly closely conforms to the tenets of ecological modernization, defined by Fisher as the theory that the quality of the environment can and will be improved through industrialization (p. 13), it differs in one significant aspect from how that is expected to happen: civil society is not building substantial coalitions with the state and industrial sectors to address this issue.

The Netherlands also ratified the Protocol and developed plans to meet state commitments. The state's climate plan includes an array of measures, including reporting requirements, a household fuel tax, and a commitment to renewable energy. Though industry has reservations about the validity of the science of climate change, it has ceased expressing such sentiments publicly, consistent with the Dutch polder model for negotiation and policy making, which emphasizes collaboration and negotiation. Industry instead is seeking to identify economic opportunities in climate change mitigation. While the climate change policy of the Netherlands closely reflects the ecological modernization model, the outcomes it predicts have yet to happen. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise in the Netherlands, supporting the idea that while "ecological modernization and postmaterialism are possible, they have not yet substantially affected actual materials environmental outcomes" (p. 102).

Finally, Fisher examines the "debate and discord" within the United States, including the Bush administration's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol. The United States dependence on the automobile, "one of the best predictors of carbon dioxide emissions in the developed world" (p. 114), and the prominence of coal (for which there is an abundant indigenous supply and a large constituency) in the US fuel mix, have exerted a profound...