A comparative assessment of climate policies of top global emitters and evolution of an effective climate regime: Issues of environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency, equity and political feasibility

Evaluation of the climate policies of top global emitters is a challenging task because their design and implementation are determined by multiple factors and circumstances. This chapter evaluates the climate policies of top emitting countries by using four broad criteria: namely, environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency, equity and political feasibility. The chapter first delineates the rationale and general evaluative framework of the analysis, and then investigates top emitters’ climate policies according to the four perspectives indicated. On the basis of the analysis, top emitters are clustered according to their performances in the determinants of climate policy into three main actors: laggards, average, and pushers. The chapter shows that political feasibility is the weakest component in top emitters’ current climate policies, followed by equity concerns, while environmental effectiveness appears to be the most successful constituent and much progress is still required in the domain of economic efficiency. Finally, the chapter briefly points out some common threads in, and emerging issues from, top emitters’ climate policies.