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Climate change benchmarking : constructing a sustainable future?
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Kuzemko, Caroline (2015) Climate change benchmarking : constructing a sustainable future? Review of International Studies, 41 (05). pp. 969-992. doi:10.1017/S0260210515000418
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0260210515000418
Abstract
This article analyses discourses on climate change and mitigation through the deconstruction of European Union (EU) rhetoric and practices on climate benchmarking. It critically examines the motivations behind climate benchmarking, the methods used to construct international benchmarks, and the reasons for variety in domestic compliance. Germany and the United Kingdom are analysed as cases where domestic politics drive very different reactions to the practice of climate mitigation, differences that have been largely hidden by the type of quantification that EU benchmarking involves. Through an exploration of the methods used to formulate climate benchmarks, the article demonstrates that these commitments have privileged certain responses over others, and thus helped to paint a picture of EU benchmarks as ‘reformist’ but not ‘radical’. EU climate benchmarks often end up concealing more than they reveal, making it difficult to fully engage with the scale and complexity of the far-reaching domestic changes that are required in order to comply with agreed international benchmarks. The deficiencies of benchmarks as a mechanism for driving long-term sustainable change, and importantly discouraging harmful policies, may ultimately undermine their credibility as a means for governing climate change at a distance in the EU.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Climate change mitigation -- Discourse analysis -- European Union, Climatic changes -- Law and legislation -- European Union, Benchmarking (Management) -- Government policy -- Great Britain, Benchmarking (Management) -- Government policy -- Germany | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Review of International Studies | ||||||
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0260-2105 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 25 November 2015 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 41 | ||||||
| Number: | 05 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 969-992 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0260210515000418 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||
| Funder: | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
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