Multi-level governance of climate change in Belgium. Modest subnational policies in a complex setting

摘要

This paper analyzes subnational climate policies in Belgium as a crucial case of multi-level policy-making in Europe. In Belgian federalism, the subnational governments have a large autonomy to conduct their own climate policies, while the scope to act at the federal level is very limited. Moreover, the federal system had produced complex and ineffective coordination patterns, where the federal and the subnational governments each have the possibility to block agreements, e.g. on the intra-Belgian burden sharing of the EU 20-20-20 targets.The paper demonstrates that, despite their large autonomy, the climate policies of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels have shown only modest ambitions so far and that they lack a long-term vision. Because of an ongoing political stalemate in Belgium, the subnational governments lack the targets that should guide their new climate policy plans. An additional difficulty is the increasingly strong political divide between conservative and progressive political parties on climate change. The divide opposes Flanders, with a conservative Environment minister, to the other Belgian governments, where the Environment portfolio is held by green or socialist ministers. Since the issue is politically sensitive, it hijacks the mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation and even prevents Belgium from taking a position in European and global decision-making bodies.It is concluded that the Belgian subnational governments, although they have multiple assets for bottom-up innovation, are no laboratories of experimentation. A partial reason is the complex multi-level architecture and its slow decision-making procedures. But it is also due to an overall lack of political will. The latter is reinforced by the particular institutional setting, which entails no leverages to force the subnational governments into a more ambitious role and thus impedes innovation. As a result, Belgian climate policies uphold a status quo.