A comparative study of greenhouse gas control policies in several large industrial nations was presented in another report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service that has not been made readily available to the public.
“All of the countries examined have in place, or are developing, some enforceable policies that serve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the CRS found. “Most are at some stage of making their programs more stringent.” See “An Overview of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Control Policies in Various Countries,” November 30, 2009.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.
FAS is launching the Center for Regulatory Ingenuity (CRI) to build a new, transpartisan vision of government that works – that has the capacity to achieve ambitious goals while adeptly responding to people’s basic needs.