How and to what extent do ongoing shifts in international climate policy change the conditions for Norway’s transition to a low-emissions economy? This is the overall question asked by CONNECT project.

Norway’s climate governance is strongly conditioned by the international climate policy context. The global climate regime, particularly the Kyoto protocol, has enabled pursuance of a global cost-efficiency approach to Norway’s climate transition, where reliance on economy-wide policy instruments (like emissions trading) and multilateral cooperation for burden sharing are central policy strategies. In contrast, the newly adopted Paris Agreement and the EU 2030 effort sharing agreement emphasise climate governance focused on domestic emissions reductions, walking away from some of the key principles on global cost-efficiency that guided the Kyoto Protocol. The new international climate policy regime therefore marks a shift to a more nationally oriented, sector-specific approach. This shift will likely be consequential for Norwegian climate governance going forward. CONNECT applies the two approaches of “global cost-efficiency” and “national sector-specific” as analytical pillars to explore climate governance shifts at three policy-making levels.

The project is coordinated by CICERO.
 

Project period: 2017-2020