Director: Jale Tosun / Co-Director: Andy Jordan

WG2 analyses the diffusion, upscaling and adoption of new elements, through processes of lesson drawing, transfer and emulation.  It investigates: how and why some policies or elements thereof diffuse more easily between jurisdictions than others; whether and if so why some jurisdictions are more ‘innovative’ than others and what the drawbacks might be; the role of international organisations (such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union) and epistemic networks.

The existing literature on these topics is very extensive with much macro-comparative analysis, but little of it considers climate change. There is also little connection to the literature on the activities of first adopters and processes of reinvention. Post adoption dynamics and the eventual effects of policy innovations are also neglected.

 In the first year, WG2 has supported a number of lines of inquiry and networking, including:

  1. Organizing a workshop in Mannheim on how private governance affects the diffusion of climate policy innovations. The papers were published in a special issue of Policy & Society in 2016.
  2. Organizing another workshop in Warsaw on the politics of non-proportionate policy responses to climate change. The papers are being published in a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning in 2017.
  3. Reached out to inclusivity countries – INOGOV was involved in the 1st Turkish-German Frontiers of Social Science Symposium 2015 – “Changing Climate – Changing Lives”.
  4. Sponsored a visiting fellowship. Nicole Schmidt – a PhD student at Heidelberg University – who spent time working with Professor Robbert Biesbroek at Wageningen.

In year 2 WG 2:

  1. Ran a workshop in Amsterdam comparing national approaches to adaptation policy. Papers from the workshop are being prepared for a special issue in Review of Policy Research which will be published late 2017.
  2. Ran another workshop entitled ‘Beyond experiments – understanding how climate governance experiments become embedded’ in Brighton.
  3. Secured an edited book based on the papers from the Brighton workshop titled ‘Innovating Climate Governance: Moving beyond experiment’.
  4. Opened up a new line of work, by running a third workshop on policy innovation and access to clean energy technology in developing countries in Geneva.
  5. Completed a review article on networked climate governance for Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Change (WIRES).
  6. Presented INOGOV findings at academic events public events, such as the talk series “Heidelberg Bridge”.
  7. Produced a research brief exploring the connection between climate policy and health.

In year 3 WG2 continued supporting networking and exploration along a number of lines of inquiry and:

  1. Ran a workshop in Durham on diffusion of national and sub-national policy innovations post-Paris.

 

 

Photo credit: Kay Kim/Flickr