This paper reviews research across economics, political economy, political science, and public policy to investigate how institutions shape the adoption, implementation, and durability of climate policies. We examine how formal institutions (i) coordinate implementation capacity, (ii) anchor...

The fossil-fuel foreign policy of the United States under President Donald Trump has intensified the conflict between petrostates and electrostates in international climate politics. At COP30 in Belém in November 2025, this cleavage was particularly evident in the dispute over a roadmap for the...

The study examines economic growth and climate change when system competition between countries causes drastic changes in their climate policies. The world is divided into two groups of countries: one that implements strict climate policies and another that refrains from doing so due to concerns...

This study critically and constructively assesses how 'economic games' contribute to climate policy research via a pre-registered systematic scoping review of 165 sources. Researchers use economic games as empirical tools to measure cooperation while experimentally controlling the presence,...

As climate negotiators gathered in Belém for the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), the surrounding rainforest was in the spotlight, with COP30 being dubbed a “forest COP”. As one of its key projects, the Brazilian government...

The Paris Agreement is designed to increase climate ambition gradually through a process of ratcheting up. What is the plausible endpoint of this process? We develop a tractable integrated assessment model in which countries interact through a decentralized general equilibrium and negotiate...

This paper reviews research across economics, political economy, political science, and public policy to investigate how institutions shape the adoption, implementation, and durability of climate policies. We examine how formal institutions (i) coordinate implementation capacity, (ii) anchor...

The world is falling behind on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a situation exacerbated by recent geopolitical disruptions and challenges to international cooperation. This policy brief, based on a virtual roundtable in the context of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) with...

The focus of climate economics has traditionally been on CO2 as a negative externality. For decades, this has led policymakers to strongly focus on carbon pricing as the preferred climate policy instrument. But addressing the climate crisis differs fundamentally from a pollution problem. It...

China actively fosters practical green cooperation to advance global sustainable development, and strengthens global environmental governance initiatives, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, this approach has often positioned China as more of a doer...

Carbon pricing is becoming a mainstream tool to cut emissions and drive clean growth. The EU's own Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has reduced covered emissions by 50% in 20 years while raising over €230 billion euros to support the transition - a success that inspires others. Today more...

Global warming is set to rise above 1.5°C by the early 2030s. Returning to 1.5°C before the end of the 21st century would not prevent all harms resulting from a period of excess temperatures, but it would reduce risks when compared to permanent warm­ing above 1.5°C. Limiting the magnitude...

Countries' current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement leave a substantial gap to the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 2°C. Böhringer et al. (2025) showed the large emissions reduction potential of global emissions trading even if...

On 14 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals implementing its plan to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. These included an intermediate target of at least a 55% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The proposal involved changes to...

Climate change is a global challenge requiring unprecedented levels of collective action. In this context, this paper asks: do appeals to historical responsibility facilitate or hinder collective action? This paper uses a simple lab experiment simulating climate mitigation bargaining between...

In the discussions being held at EU level about the 2040 mitigation target, the role of international credits has recently taken centre stage. The new momentum in those discussions is due in part to the German government having announced its support for a mitigation target of a net 90 per cent...

Since the 2016 Paris Agreement, countries and companies have been increasingly pressured to adopt appropriate response measures to climate change. However, it is not clear what factors drive firms to undertake climate change actions. Using a correlated random effects panel probit model, this...

Purpose - The study focused on the influence of internal environmental communication on organizational environmental governance and the adoption of green inbound logistics practices and the mediating role of organizational environmental governance on the relationship between internal...

Two phenomena are increasingly reshaping the world economy. One is the growing and well-documented importance of climate transition policies that differ across countries. The other is the stark rise of geoeconomic fragmentation (GEF) concerns. While differences in climate transition policies are...

Across Africa, rising populations and increased socioeconomic activity in coastal areas are resulting in increasing marine pollution. Rather than expand their Blue Economies, countries need to combat pollution in coastal and marine waters to mitigate the threats posed to biodiversity, ecosystem...

This paper examines how donor countries can be motivated by self-interest to fund emission reductions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While not solving the broader climate cooperation problem, we propose pragmatic measures that do not require global consensus on future climate risks...

The EU aims to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, and by 90% by 2040 relative to 1990. To achieve these ambitious climate targets, the volume of available emission allowances will have to be drastically reduced in the coming years. This will lead to a sharp rise...

We provide a counterfactual impact analysis of the Kyoto binding targets-as international environmental policy intervention-on green productivity growth. We also examine the possible channels that could explain the Kyoto effects on the change in green productivity. Recognizing the cooperative...