Category Archives: Sustainable development

Speech during the Intensive Programme of the MA in Euroculture “European Environments: How a New Climate is Changing the Old World”

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The Intensive Programme of the MA in Euroculture ”European Environments: How a New Climate is Changing the Old Wolrd” is going to take place at the Jagiellonian University in Cracov from 22 to 29 June. I am going to give a speech during the opening panel: “The Climate of European Politics”. The title of my speech is: “Bringing energy to the people: what Poland, Europe and the world really need”.

Some European states and the European Union are widely seen as leaders in global environmental issues. Various European states have gone furthest in moving toward sustainable energy policies; EU environmental standards are among the most stringent in the world. But the politics surrounding climate change are highly complex. Within Europe, there are wide differences among European states’ responses to environmental change, and in how voters and political leaders perceive the issue. Increased public awareness of the dangers of climate change does not seem fundamentally to have changed voting behavior on the national or European level. On the global level, complex issues of political, economic, and soft power make it unclear whether the EU is really able to offer global leadership in promoting sustainable development.

Here students are invited to explore the issues and themes in which European integration, international politics, and global environmental issues meet and intersect. How does climate change affect the EU’s relations with, for example, China, Russia, Brazil, or the United States? How is the warming of the Arctic (raising the prospect of ice-free summers in the near future) affecting European energy, security, and trade policy? Are there European success stories like international cooperation in cleaning up the Rhine, or the development of European emission standards that can inspire transnational environmental cooperation elsewhere? Or does Europe’s current crisis undermine the Union’s ability to take up a leadership role? Does the rest of the world even want such leadership? Within the EU, can environmental crisis be a force that deepens European integration, or only a further strain on the Union? How, for example, will the EU respond to the expected influx of so-called climate refugees, driven from their homes by rising sea levels or desertification? What links Europe’s financial crisis and the crisis of European institutions to the problems of climate change? Could so-called ecological economics offer fresh solutions to the crisis of the eurozone? Finally, how can we best understand the interplay of local, national, European, and global forces that drive European governments’ responses (or lack thereof) to ecological concerns?

More information about the conference as well as its programme are available on the website of the Intensive Programme of the MA in Euroculture.

Conference “The EU Renewable Energy Policy: Challenges and Opportunities”

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ffu-logo-final1The conference is going to take place at the Free University of Berlin on 9 May. The title of my conference paper and presentation is: “Poland at the energy policy crossroads – a superficial Europenization?”.

The organizer, the Forschungszentrum für Umweltpolitik (FFU) [Environmental Policy Research Centre] at the Free University of Berlin, about the conference:

Das Forschungszentrum für Umweltpolitik (FFU) der Freien Universität Berlin organisiert mit finanzieller Unterstützung der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung eine Konferenz zum Thema “The EU renewable energy policy: challenges and opportunities”. In der Konferenz gehen junge AkademikerInnen aus dem Bereich der Umwelt- und Energiepolitik der Frage nach, wie und in welchem Ausmaß die erneuerbare Energien-Politik der EU die nationalstaatliche Ebene beeinflusst und damit die Transformation der Mitgliedsstaaten in Richtung eines nachhaltigen, auf erneuerbaren Energien basierenden Energieversorgungssystems vorangetrieben hat.

More information about the conference as well as its programme is available on the website of the FFU.

Article together with Andre Schaffrin on the role of veto players and leaders in the new field of climate mitigation policy

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This article titled: “Breaks or engines? The role of veto players and leaders in the new field of climate mitigation policy” is a part of Andre Schaffrin’s cumulative dissertation: Schaffrin, Andre (2013), “Policy Change: Concept, Measurement, and Causes. An Empirical Analysis of Climate Mitigation Policy”, Dissertation, Universität zu Kölln. It is available here.

Breaks or engines? The role of veto players and leaders in the new field of climate mitigation policy

Abstract

Veto player theory is undoubtedly one of the most prominent approaches for explaining policy stability and change. While some studies have corroborated the influence of veto players and their preferences, other empirical work has provided mixed evidence. Three critical points are discussed: the identification of veto players, the measurement of policy preferences and the assumption of equivalence of veto players. This article aims to shed new light on the theoretical debate and empirical influence of veto players by applying the model to a newly emerging policy field. While most empirical studies have tested veto player theory in established fields such as social or economic policy, the new field of climate mitigation provides a different context for political decision-making. In this situation with a status quo outside the median preferences, a lack of policy baggage and newly forming actors and interests, the absolute anchoring of preferences and the identification of leaders seems to be an important extension of the veto player perspective. Using a mixed-methods approach, this article combines a large-N pooled time-series cross-section analysis of national policies on energy efficiency in 25 EU member states from 1998 to 2010 with a case-study analysis of the renewable electricity laws in Poland (2005) and Germany (2000). The findings demonstrate that climate leaders play a crucial role in stimulating climate mitigation policy. The case study suggests that political actors other than official veto players such as ministers or the EU strongly influence the process of agenda setting and decision making. The findings underscore the importance of including a measure of the internal cohesion of veto players, the presence of leaders, and the consideration of motives other than policy preferences in future analyses.

Translation into Polish of the Corporate Europe Observatory’s report about the big business influence on the Warsaw Climate Summit

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Published by Corporate Europe Observatory, CEO, 21 November 2013.

Nieszczescia chodza parami – wielcy truciciele, polski rzad i ONZ

Corporate Europe Observatory

we wspolpracy badawczej z Karolina Jankowska

Goszczenie tegorocznej Konferencji Narodow Zjednoczonych nt. Zmian Klimatu, COP19, przez Polske, kraj w duzej mierze uzalezniony od wegla i cieszAcy sie zla slawa blokujacego ambitna polityke klimatyczna na poziomie UE, nie wrozy nic dobrego dla jej rezultatow. Polski rzad zaprosil prywatne korporacje do sponsorowania COP – choc przede wszystkim na konferencje, co wywolalo fale pytan, czy COP jest nadal powaznym miedzynarodowym spotkaniem najwyzszej wagi, czy tez znakomita szansa do lobbowania przez tych, ktorzy maja bezposredni komercyjny interes w spalaniu wiekszej ilosci paliw kopalnych. Fakt, ze jeden ze sponsorow biznesowych, producent stali ArcelorMittal, zaplacil za budowe pomieszczen konferencyjnych i umiescil na nich swoje logo, jest znamienitym symbolem “zawlaszczenia” (capture) przez korporacje procesu negocjacyjnego COP.

W miedzyczasie odbyl sie Miedzynarodowy Szczyt Wegla i Klimatu (International Coal and Climate Summit), zorganizowany przez Swiatowa Organizacje Wegla (World Coal Association) jako wydarzenie rownolegle, przy wsparciu polskiego Ministra Gospodarki. Wspolnie wydali oni tzw. “Komunikat Warszawski” (“Warsaw Communique”) proponujac wykorzystanie nieistniejAcego w rzeczywistosci “czystego wegla” (“clean coal”) do walki ze zmianami klimatu.

New contribution: “The COP19 guide to corporate lobbying. Climate crooks and the Polish government’s partners in crime”

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messecoverPublished by Corporate Europe Observatory, CEO, and Transnational Institute, TI, in October 2013. Research and writing: Rachel Tansey, with contributions from Karolina Jankowska, Nina Holland and Belen Balanya.

The COP19 Guide to Corporate Lobbying. Climate crooks and the Polish government’s partners in crime

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is yearly talks have become a “must attend” event for huge numbers of business and industry lobbyists, all eager to promote their preferred “solution” to tackling climate change – solutions which protect their business interests, provide them with new opportunities to profit and most importantly of all, allow them to continue polluting the climate and destroying the environment for everyone. False solutions to climate change have been promoted by powerful corporations and business interests for years, from a free market in pollution – a global carbon market that helps rich companies avoid emission cuts at source – to public funding for controversial technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear power and agrofuels which have been shown to harm people and the planet.

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