Call for Papers: Climate Action through Policy Expansion and Dismantling: Country-Comparative Insights

DATE: October 2022

HOST INSTITUTION:  Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University

LOCATION: Mannheim, Germany

The comparative study of climate policy has concentrated on decisions concerning the adoption of new instruments to curb carbon emissions such as instruments for promoting the adoption of renewable energy technologies. In addition, we know from pertinent research that it is politically more feasible to adopt new instruments than to dismantle those that are already in place. Once established any political decision creates winners and losers. Consequently, an influential group of winners may make it particularly difficult to dismantle a policy instrument that has adverse effects on carbon emissions such as subsidies for fossil fuels.

This international workshop will gather scholars interested in the comparative analysis of policy instrument expansion to act against climate change and of instances when policy instruments with climate adverse effects became dismantled in order to draw conclusions with regard to four broader research dimensions:

• The political strategies used for policy expansion and dismantling;
• The advocacy strategies used by the potential losers of a dismantling decision;
• The features of the overall climate policy mix in jurisdictions that have shown the willingness to dismantle policy instruments that are potentially harmful to the climate;
• The interplay between policy expansion and policy dismantling.

Preference will be given to those submissions whose primary focus resides with the explicit and detailed engagement with phenomena related to policy dismantling in a comparative setting. The latter can include comparisons of countries or subnational entities, comparison over time or comparison across sectors.