The socialization potential of the CDM in EU–Vietnam climate relations

This article argues that the material incentives associated with climate policies such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) may contribute to the socialization of emerging economies such as Vietnam in economic-oriented climate change norms. In current academic research, the CDM has both been extolled as a cost-effective and vilified as an environmentally inadequate instrument. Few studies so far, however, have looked into the CDM's potential contribution to socialization-related phenomena such as raising climate change awareness. This article aims to fill that gap by studying the CDM in EU–Vietnam relations in four periods, namely initiation (2001–2007), improvement (2008–2010), consolidation (2010–2012), and potential habit formation (2012 and beyond), with both the EU and Vietnam being important players in the market for CDM credits (Certified Emission Reductions or CERs). We argue that there is at least a strong potential for habit formation resulting from the CDM's material incentives, and that the underlying causal mechanism involves the emergence and activities of norm entrepreneurs and habit formation through a process of legal institutionalization.Policy relevanceNormative transformation or change is increasingly attracting the attention of both climate policy makers and scholars alike, certainly in view of the failures of ‘standard’ economic or technological solutions to tackle climate change. There is a need, however, to apply insights from social theory to specific policies and cases. The policy relevance of this article lies here: does the CDM (a specific policy) affect climate concerns (norms) in Vietnam (a specific case)? And, if so, to what extent and why? Based on previous research regarding the Chinese case, it is expected that the CDM's material incentives result in a mild effect in Vietnam, probably less pronounced than in China in view of the latter's relative level of economic development, and the strength of its political and legal-institutional system and (human) capacity to develop CDM projects. This article's research findings point out that whether and how ‘deep’ these new shared ideas will succeed in becoming standards of appropriate behaviour in Vietnam might to some extent depend on whether the international community is able to offer a material incentive structure that fosters such a normative transformation.