ABSTRACT

One indicator of a climate-change-driven response will be the gradual incorporation of a ‘civic science’ into the process. Civic science, in a term coined by Kai Lee, is an extension of ‘conventional’ science through which both data and projections are subject to open and more trusting negotiations amongst a wide range of stakeholders. The most significant institutionally adaptive measures from all the countries studied include tax policies, policy integration arrangements, modest initiatives on the transport front, improved consultative and coordination procedures, and the momentum towards local Agenda 21. Climate policy inevitably becomes entangled in tax policy, regional development strategies and social well-being issues. The most adventurous attempt to promote this mix was the proposal by DG XI to promote a powerful but competitively equalizing tool in the form of a union-wide carbon/energy tax. Policy integration is long called for but rarely takes place.