IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/glenvp/v21y2021i1p23-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Silver Lining to Extreme Weather Events? Democracy and Climate Change Mitigation

Author

Listed:
  • Lauri Peterson

Abstract

Long-standing meteorological research has established that anthropogenic climate change increases the risk and intensity of extreme weather events, such as tropical cyclones, floods, and forest fires. However, comparatively little is known about the impact of such events on policy ambition. Studies on the topic emerged only recently and tend to focus on individual country cases. A comprehensive cross-country perspective is still missing. This article addresses the gap in the literature using large-scale analyses on the basis of country-level data from 2008 to 2017. The findings indicate that extreme weather events propel only highly functioning democracies to tackle climate change. Effects among remaining country cases are insignificant. This variation in the data can be attributed to democracies’ concern for the common good and the perspectives of those most affected by climate-related disasters.

Suggested Citation

  • Lauri Peterson, 2021. "Silver Lining to Extreme Weather Events? Democracy and Climate Change Mitigation," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 21(1), pages 23-53, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:21:y:2021:i:1:p:23-53
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/glep_a_00592
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Neumayer, 2002. "Do Democracies Exhibit Stronger International Environmental Commitment? A Cross-country Analysis," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 39(2), pages 139-164, March.
    2. Sippel, Maike & Jenssen, Till, 2009. "What about local climate governance? A review of promise and problems," MPRA Paper 20987, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Quentin Perrier & Céline Guivarch & Olivier Boucher, 2020. "Diversity of greenhouse gas emission drivers across European countries since the 2008 crisis," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(9), pages 1067-1087, July.
    4. Bättig, Michèle B. & Bernauer, Thomas, 2009. "National Institutions and Global Public Goods: Are Democracies More Cooperative in Climate Change Policy?," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(2), pages 281-308, April.
    5. Cole, Shawn & Healy, Andrew & Werker, Eric, 2012. "Do voters demand responsive governments? Evidence from Indian disaster relief," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 167-181.
    6. David M. Konisky & Llewelyn Hughes & Charles H. Kaylor, 2016. "Extreme weather events and climate change concern," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 134(4), pages 533-547, February.
    7. Piet Buys & Uwe Deichmann & Craig Meisner & Thao Ton That & David Wheeler, 2009. "Country stakes in climate change negotiations: two dimensions of vulnerability," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 288-305, May.
    8. Herrnstadt, Evan & Muehlegger, Erich, 2014. "Weather, salience of climate change and congressional voting," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 435-448.
    9. J. Birkmann & P. Buckle & J. Jaeger & M. Pelling & N. Setiadi & M. Garschagen & N. Fernando & J. Kropp, 2010. "Extreme events and disasters: a window of opportunity for change? Analysis of organizational, institutional and political changes, formal and informal responses after mega-disasters," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 55(3), pages 637-655, December.
    10. Gagliarducci, Stefano & Paserman, M. Daniele & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2019. "Hurricanes, Climate Change Policies and Electoral Accountability," IZA Discussion Papers 12334, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Congleton, Roger D, 1992. "Political Institutions and Pollution Control," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(3), pages 412-421, August.
    12. Liliana B. Andonova & Yixian Sun, 2019. "Private Governance in Developing Countries: Drivers of Voluntary Carbon Offset Programs," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 19(1), pages 99-122, February.
    13. Marlene Kammerer & Chandreyee Namhata, 2018. "What drives the adoption of climate change mitigation policy? A dynamic network approach to policy diffusion," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(4), pages 477-513, December.
    14. David Konisky & Llewelyn Hughes & Charles Kaylor, 2016. "Extreme weather events and climate change concern," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 134(4), pages 533-547, February.
    15. Baranzini, Andrea & Chesney, Marc & Morisset, Jacques, 2003. "The impact of possible climate catastrophes on global warming policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 691-701, June.
    16. Drago Bergholt & Päivi Lujala, 2012. "Climate-related natural disasters, economic growth, and armed civil conflict," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 49(1), pages 147-162, January.
    17. Christina Demski & Stuart Capstick & Nick Pidgeon & Robert Gennaro Sposato & Alexa Spence, 2017. "Experience of extreme weather affects climate change mitigation and adaptation responses," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 149-164, January.
    18. Christina M. Patricola & Michael F. Wehner, 2018. "Anthropogenic influences on major tropical cyclone events," Nature, Nature, vol. 563(7731), pages 339-346, November.
    19. Katja Brundiers & Hallie C. Eakin, 2018. "Leveraging Post-Disaster Windows of Opportunities for Change towards Sustainability: A Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    20. Matthew R. Sisco & Valentina Bosetti & Elke U. Weber, 2017. "When do extreme weather events generate attention to climate change?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 227-241, July.
    21. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2010. "The worldwide governance indicators : methodology and analytical issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5430, The World Bank.
    22. James P. Kossin, 2018. "A global slowdown of tropical-cyclone translation speed," Nature, Nature, vol. 558(7708), pages 104-107, June.
    23. Sprinz, Detlef & Vaahtoranta, Tapani, 1994. "The interest-based explanation of international environmental policy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 77-105, January.
    24. Cadoret, Isabelle & Padovano, Fabio, 2016. "The political drivers of renewable energies policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 261-269.
    25. Paul Tobin, 2017. "Leaders and Laggards: Climate Policy Ambition in Developed States," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 17(4), pages 28-47, November.
    26. Kevin E. Trenberth & Aiguo Dai & Gerard van der Schrier & Philip D. Jones & Jonathan Barichivich & Keith R. Briffa & Justin Sheffield, 2014. "Global warming and changes in drought," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 17-22, January.
    27. Christopher P. Borick & Barry G. Rabe, 2010. "A Reason to Believe: Examining the Factors that Determine Individual Views on Global Warming," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(3), pages 777-800, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brännlund, Anton & Peterson, Lauri, 2024. "Power politics: How electric grievances shape election outcomes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    2. Iyke, Bernard Njindan, 2024. "Climate change, energy security risk, and clean energy investment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Amirapu, Amrit & Clots-Figueras, Irma & Rud, Juan Pablo, 2022. "Climate Change and Political Participation: Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 15764, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Jeremiás Máté Balogh & Tamás Mizik, 2023. "Global Impacts of Climate Policy and Trade Agreements on Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-13, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Astghik Mavisakalyan & Vladimir Otrachshenko & Olga Popova, 2023. "Does democracy protect the environment? The role of the Arctic Council," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(5), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Haiqing Hu & Di Chen & Chun‐Ping Chang & Yin Chu, 2021. "The Political Economy Of Environmental Consequences: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 250-306, February.
    3. Christopher Crellin & Robert MacNeil, 2023. "Extreme weather events and public attention to climate change in Australia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(9), pages 1-7, September.
    4. D'Orazio, Paola, 2022. "Mapping the emergence and diffusion of climate-related financial policies: Evidence from a cluster analysis on G20 countries," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 135-147.
    5. P. Stahlmann-Brown & P. Walsh, 2022. "Soil moisture and expectations regarding future climate: evidence from panel data," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Singh, Renu, 2023. "Priming COVID-19's consequences can increase support for investments in public health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    7. Fengxiu Zhang, 2022. "Not all extreme weather events are equal: Impacts on risk perception and adaptation in public transit agencies," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 1-21, March.
    8. Lauri Peterson, 2022. "Domestic and international climate policies: complementarity or disparity?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 97-118, March.
    9. Chad Zanocco & Hilary Boudet & Roberta Nilson & Hannah Satein & Hannah Whitley & June Flora, 2018. "Place, proximity, and perceived harm: extreme weather events and views about climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 349-365, August.
    10. Joseph P. Reser & Graham L. Bradley, 2020. "The nature, significance, and influence of perceived personal experience of climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(5), September.
    11. Llewelyn Hughes & David M. Konisky & Sandra Potter, 2020. "Extreme weather and climate opinion: evidence from Australia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 723-743, November.
    12. Daniel Nohrstedt & Jacob Hileman & Maurizio Mazzoleni & Giuliano Baldassarre & Charles F. Parker, 2022. "Exploring disaster impacts on adaptation actions in 549 cities worldwide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Stephanie Shepard & Hilary Boudet & Chad M. Zanocco & Lori A. Cramer & Bryan Tilt, 2018. "Community climate change beliefs, awareness, and actions in the wake of the September 2013 flooding in Boulder County, Colorado," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(3), pages 312-325, September.
    14. Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Popova, Olga, 2024. "Environment vs. Economic Growth: Do Environmental Preferences Translate Into Support for Green Parties?," IZA Discussion Papers 17475, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Daniel Fiorino, 2011. "Explaining national environmental performance: approaches, evidence, and implications," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 44(4), pages 367-389, November.
    16. Donatella Baiardi, 2021. "What do you think about climate change?," Working Papers 477, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2021.
    17. Max Meulemann, 2017. "An Empirical Assessment Of Components Of Climate Architectures," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(04), pages 1-36, November.
    18. Sitong Yang & Shouwei Li & Xue Rui & Tianxiang Zhao, 2024. "The impact of climate risk on the asset side and liability side of the insurance industry: evidence from China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1-51, June.
    19. Zeynep Clulow & David M. Reiner, 2022. "Democracy, Economic Development and Low-Carbon Energy: When and Why Does Democratization Promote Energy Transition?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.
    20. Fredriksson, Per G. & Neumayer, Eric, 2013. "Democracy and climate change policies: Is history important?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 11-19.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:21:y:2021:i:1:p:23-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The MIT Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.