Bridging the Gap: Public Support in the Shadow of Unilateral Climate Policies

Survey data from around the world indicate high levels of support for climate policies. Yet, when we examine global greenhouse gas emissions, we find that they increase. If there are high levels of public support, then surely governments around the world have enough room to enact climate policies. The research question in the thesis is: “If there is public support for climate policy what explains the gap between current policy and those required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement”. In order to answer this question, the paper covers a lot of ground and starts with examining classic theories of how to govern the commons confronted with updated insights. Through investigations into survey data, text analysis, literature reviews and examples of current events and policies, I find evidence to support that there are reasons to believe there exists public support for ambitious climate policies. However, this support is conditional, and what these conditions are is not always easily determined and varies across different political landscapes. Lastly, I examine a revenue neutral carbon tax found in Canada and discover that while it is certainly a result of political craftmanship, it currently lack the potency to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to a sufficient degree. Whether it has the potential to be an important policy in reaching the targets of the Paris Agreement is hard to determine, but it seems unlikely to be able to do so within the timeframes laid out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.