Business and Management INK

Tackling a Global Challenge: California’s Climate Change Policy

April 8, 2011 839

“California’s Climate Change Policy: The Case of a Subnational State Actor Tackling a Global Challenge,” by Daniel A. Mazmanian, University of Southern California, John Jurewitz, Pomona College, and Hal Nelson, Claremont Graduate University, currently appears as one of the most frequently cited articles in “The Journal of Environment and Development,” based on citations to online articles from HighWire-hosted articles.

Professor Mazmanian has kindly provided some additional background information regarding the popular article from December 2008.

We are delighted to be asked to expound a bit on our motives and goals in writing about California’s ambitious climate change mitigation strategy. Based on the rather extraordinary attention that the policy, specifically AB32(2006), was receiving in the press at the time of our writing and in national and international policy discussions of climate policy, we felt that readers would appreciate knowing more about the substantive details of the policy. How was California going to accomplish what others were unprepared and unwilling to attempt? Also, we wanted to place this in the context of California’s long history of environmental policy entrepreneurship.

Yet, despite its tradition of environmental leadership, climate change mitigation poses unique pragmatic and conceptual challenges that lead us to question aloud the intelligence and implementability of the policy. Of particular concern is that the policy commits Californian’s to absorbing whatever the costs to its economic competitiveness and the pocketbooks of its citizens in order to reach the IPCC reduction goals for green house gases reductions. It does so through a combination of strong regulation and market incentives. The problem, as we saw it, is that the benefits of doing so could end up being only minimally reaped within the state, indeed, the greater the success in implementation could impose the greatest potential costs. In game theoretic language, thus, California chose to gamble that it could turn this risk to its own ends and that it would not end up being the ‘sucker’ in the climate change policy arena. Maybe, and as hopefully as we were personally, we felt the risk needed to be recognized. The policy is also unprecedented in that it declares that GHG reductions will be borne by all major sectors of the state, with the unprecedented implications for changing practices in business and industry, and individual behavior.

In the three years since first drafting the article, much has changed in the state and globally, in particular within the climate change policy arena. In light of this we are currently considering a follow on article that compares the decision-making process in climate change mitigation and adaptation policy in California, with likely implications well beyond the state.

Bookmark and Share

Business and Management INK puts the spotlight on research published in our more than 100 management and business journals. We feature an inside view of the research that’s being published in top-tier SAGE journals by the authors themselves.

View all posts by Business & Management INK

Related Articles

Boards and Internationalization Speed
Business and Management INK
November 18, 2024

Boards and Internationalization Speed

Read Now
How Managers Can Enhance Trust
Business and Management INK
November 11, 2024

How Managers Can Enhance Trust

Read Now
The Role of Place in Sustainability
Business and Management INK
October 28, 2024

The Role of Place in Sustainability

Read Now
Turning to Glitter in Management Studies – Why We Should Take ‘Unserious’ Glitter Serious to Understand New Management Practices
Business and Management INK
October 24, 2024

Turning to Glitter in Management Studies – Why We Should Take ‘Unserious’ Glitter Serious to Understand New Management Practices

Read Now
Utilizing Academic-Practitioner Partnering for Societal Impact

Utilizing Academic-Practitioner Partnering for Societal Impact

In this article, co-authors Natalie Slawinski, Bruna Brito, Jennifer Brenton, and Wendy Smith reflect on the inspiration behind their research article, “Reflections on deep academic–practitioner partnering for generative societal impact,” published in Strategic Organization.

Read Now
Trippin’ Forward: Management Research and the Development of Psychedelics

Trippin’ Forward: Management Research and the Development of Psychedelics

Charlie Smith reflects on his interest in psychedelic research, the topic of his research article, “Psychedelics, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Employees’ Wellbeing,” published in Journal of Management Inquiry.

Read Now
Using Ethnography to Explore Entrepreneurial Extracurricular Activities

Using Ethnography to Explore Entrepreneurial Extracurricular Activities

Co-authors Birgitte Wraae and Nicolai Nybye reflect on the inspiration behind their research article, “Learning to Be “Me,” “the Team,” and “the Company” Through Entrepreneurial Extracurricular Activities: An Ethnographic Approach,” published in Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy.

Read Now
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments