Explaining the variation in commitment to the Kyoto Protocol in Annex-I and non Annex-I countries.

摘要

This thesis is an investigation of the factors that explain the variation in commitment to the Kyoto Protocol in Annex I and non-Annex I countries using economic, political and geophysical characteristics of individual countries. Review of existing conceptual and empirical literature helps to create a measure of commitment that is presented as an improvement over existing measures in the literature, and serves to identify factors that should influence commitment. Adopting a Public Choice view results in explanatory factors focusing on demand driven aspects such as interest group pressure, however capacity driven factors such as economic and population growth are also included. The results suggest that capacity driven macroeconomic factors are better able to explain the variation in commitment, and thus should be considered as a conceptual framework in future research to determine targets for greenhouse gas reductions for individual countries in international climate policy.