National climate change governance – GSDRC (2017)

GSDRC summarises the key literature and case studies on political economy approaches to environmental development and institutional capacities to show how local stakeholders can be better supported to implement climate and sustainable development policy.

The guide looks at climate change governance and the political economy of climate policy development and implementation at the national scale. Its primary purpose is to help development staff support stakeholders in recipient countries that are implementing climate and sustainable development policies. The guide is designed to demonstrate how these policies can be implemented in a way that is equitable, effective and coherent and that can adapt to changing circumstances. The discussion draws examples from both developed and developing countries to illustrate how different institutional and political settings are responding to challenges ranging from emissions reduction to the building of adaptive capacity to respond to climate impacts. It finds that the degree to which climate policies are implemented and receive sustained public and political support depends on a range of social and economic factors.