Think Global, Act Local? Environmental Regime Effectiveness

Local action is needed to tackle global environmental threats like climate change. Environmentalists use to say: Think global, act local! What does this mean in the context of international regimes? This book examines the interrelations between domestic politics and the effectiveness of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) a global regime that encourages industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainability with projects in the developing world. A simple concept in theory, but the reality is complex and sometimes contradictory as this work reveals with experiences from the Philippines, India and China. Is the CDM an effective global regime? How do local and global actors interact? This book provides answers with both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of renewable energy projects under the CDM. Four specific case studies give a deeper insight into the topic. International regimes theory will be combined with domestic politics to develop a new framework of multilevel interaction. Eventually, this work reveals major contradictions between theory and practice and it shows lessons learned to improve environmental regimes like the CDM.

Autorentext

Dipl. pol. Jens Marquardt graduated in political science at the Otto-Suhr-Institut of the Freie Universität Berlin. His research priorities are global governance and international environmental regimes as well as topics related to development cooperation. The author deepened his knowledge through project work in India and the Philippines.