1. The Case for Climate Policy Integration

An explanatory note on developing countries and emerging economies: Under the UNFCCC, these countries formed one group with no commitments for the reduction of GHG emissions, but with reporting obligations. This has changed since the Paris Agreement, where all countries have assumed obligations. In this context, developing countries and emerging economies formed the same group and definition. Other definitions of emerging economies—such as Jain (2006)—differentiate between emerging economies and developing countries in that the former feature business or social activities, which are in the process of rapid growth or rapid industrialization. In this thesis, I use the term emerging economies as a group of countries with rapid economic growth, which form part of the G20, but share the same obligations and history under the UNFCCC as developing countries. This is why I sometimes use the term developing countries to characterize both groups of countries in the sense of positioning them in the climate regime but focus the analytical part of the thesis on emerging economies.

A 25% sample of 146 NDCs corresponds to an 85% confidence level and 10% error margin.

Russia was excluded from this exercise for language reasons.

The table with the results of the comparison of G20 countries’ climate and sectoral policies can be found in the annex.

No standard definition available, but commonly referred to as a scenario which is characterized by the absence of climate change policies and measures. Frequently also called business-as-usual (BAU) scenario.

This conference is organized by the NDC partnership, which is “a global coalition of over 100 countries and institutions collaborating to drive transformational climate action while enhancing sustainable development”. Source: https://​ndcpartnership.​org/​governance

“…So, what needs to be done? First, climate action needs to be integrated into all development planning.” Speech of Helen Clark, 7/12/2015, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme 2009–2017 at UNFCCC COP 21.

“Limiting warming to 1.5 °C would require transformative systemic change, integrated with sustainable development. Such change would require the upscaling and acceleration of the implementation of far-reaching, multi-level and cross-sectoral climate mitigation and addressing barriers. The coordination and monitoring of policy actions across sectors and spatial scales is essential to support sustainable development in 1.5 °C warmer conditions” IPCC Special report, Chapter 2, 2018.