Can constitutions bring about revolutions? How to enhance decarbonization success

• Published in: Environmental science & policy 2019-03, Vol.93, p.200-207
• Main Authors: Cepparulo, Alessandra, Eusepi, Giuseppe, Giuriato, Luisa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Climate change; Constitution; Decarbonization; Environmental performance; European Union
• ISSN: 1462-9011; 1873-6416
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2018.10.019

•Domestic and external instruments are insufficient to anchor expectations to decarbonization.•Evidence that constitutional provisions provide robust anchor to decarbonisation.•Decarbonisation depends on institutions, in particular multi-level governance.•The constitutional strength of environmental rights reduces emissions.•Rights to atmospheric integrity in EU Treaty useful to lock-in decarbonisation policies. Climate policy-making and decarbonization require instruments to create and manage economic expectations. There is increasing concern that the existing panoply of domestic (emission trading schemes, regulation, taxes) and external instruments (climate change treaties) be insufficient to anchor expectations to decarbonization and isolate abatement policies from risk to be reneged or insufficiently implemented. The paper argues that constitutional provisions could represent the help policymakers need in committing to combat climate change and setting their policy goals in a low-carbon direction. This role is empirically confirmed by applying a pooled OLS on a sample of 168 countries covering different geographic areas over the period 2010–2014. We also confirm the role of multi-level governance in disciplining carbon emissions and advocate for the right to atmospheric integrity to be embedded at EU treaty level.