Resource Management and Geography - Theses
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ItemProfile, power, and national climate policy( 2011)In the decade after the Kyoto Protocol was established, the extent to which ENGOs and environmental movements were making progress on the issue of climate change became the subject of debate within both academic and activist communities. Such debates come into sharp relief in Australia and New Zealand - two neighbouring democracies (and signatories to the international treaty) that have, despite quite robust and seemingly successful environmental movements in the past, among the highest per capita emissions in the developed world. Scholars have contended that the absence of stronger national responses to climate change has had much to do with the overwhelming influence of industry lobby groups and other vested interests in the policymaking process, as well as skepticism in the mainstream media. Taking social movement theory as the point of departure, this three-part investigation contemplates a further explanation. The general aim of this research is to critically analyze the influence, power, and success of ENGOs with respect to national climate policy in Australia and New Zealand from 1998 to 2007, and to consider broader consequences for the environmental movement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of seventy participants from ENGOs (seven in each country), government agencies, industry lobby groups, media outlets, and academia. Having established an innovative framework for conceptualizing social movements and assessing their outcomes, Part I looks at how the strategic activities of ENGOs’ climate change campaigns were intended to influence national policy, why those approaches were adopted, and the desired goals. In both countries, there was a tendency towards reformist approaches, which appealed to (rather than challenged) status quo values and beliefs. This appeared to be fuelled by intense competition and an obsession with profile-building under a hostile, exclusive political regime in Australia. In New Zealand, on the other hand, it could be traced to a more cooperative (and less competitive) ethos under a ‘green’, inclusive regime. Part II of the investigation evaluates the actual influence of campaign activities, and finds little evidence to suggest that ENGOs - in either country - influenced national climate policy in ways that were intended. However, there was some evidence to suggest they were influential in ways that had not been intended. This included undermining their own political relevance, for example, and reinforcing the status of other vested interests in climate policy debates. Part III unpacks different manifestations of ENGOs’ success and power, and considers broader consequences of their strategic activities for the environmental movement. While findings indicate that most ENGOs witnessed some success with respect to intermediate goals, their strategic activities often masked a need for the public to engage in more contentious collective behavior, which compromised the environmental movement’s capacity to function as a social movement, which further compromised ENGOs’ leverage in the policymaking process. This research suggests an overhaul to the approaches adopted by some major national ENGOs is required if they intend to be effective forces of social and political change on this issue in the future.