Explaining radical policy change: Norwegian climate policy and the ban on cultivating peatlands

• Published in: Global environmental change 2022-05, Vol.74, p.102517, Article 102517
• Main Authors: Farstad, Fay M., Hermansen, Erlend Andre Tveiten, Grasbekk, Bård Sødal, Brudevoll, Kristiane, van Oort, Bob
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural industry; Agriculture; Carbon sinks; Climate change; Climate policy; Cost analysis; Couplings; Cultivation; Emissions control; Equilibrium; Multiple streams; Norway; Peatlands; Policy making; Political parties; Politics; Punctuated equilibrium; Radicalism
• ISSN: 0959-3780; 1872-9495
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102517

•The MS and the PE models of agenda-setting can be combined to provide a holistic framework.•Policy windows or punctuations can last longer than both models anticipate.•Multiple complete couplings can take place within the opening of a policy window.•Agenda-setting models need to be revised to better account for party politics. For decades Norwegian climate policy has largely ignored the agricultural sector and focused on cost-effective emission reductions abroad. Yet in June 2020, Norway decided to ban the cultivation of peatlands to protect critical carbon sinks, and the issue became ‘high politics’. We explain this radical policy change by combining an adapted version of the Multiple Streams framework with the Punctuated Equilibrium model of agenda-setting. We argue that the two models combined can provide a holistic explanatory framework, albeit with two revisions. Firstly, the window of opportunity or punctuation was in our case of a longer duration than both models anticipate. Secondly, we find that multiple complete couplings can take place within the opening of a policy (or more specifically, a decision) window. Both findings can be explained by party competition, thus underlining the need to revise agenda-setting models to better account for party politics.