- Campuses :
- Twin Cities
- Crookston
- Duluth
- Morris
- Rochester
- Other Locations
Department of Sociology
soc@umn.edu
612-624-4300
soc@umn.edu
612-624-4300
Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks (Compon):
An International Comparative Research Project
Despite the Kyoto Protocol, only a few nations have taken even initial steps toward the mitigation of climate change (reduction in GHG outputs and protection of sinks). Nations have sufficient natural scientific information on the subject, but lack the social and political will to respond seriously, thus hindering global efforts to address this problem.
The project on Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks (Compon) is examining the causes of this inertia by studying the factors that account for cross-national variation in efforts to mitigate climate change. This variation arises from difference in the interaction process between ways of thinking (discourse) and ways of acting (coalitions) in national cases. The Compon project currently has teams in over 15 societies (developed, developing and transitional) and at the international level collecting equivalent empirical data on these processes using content analysis, interview and inter-organizational network survey.
The Compon project has received substantial funding from the US National Science Foundation and governmental sources in other countries. It is intended to advance the social theory of climate change response, to provide a public data base for research on a continuing basis, to establish research and teaching centers on this theme, and to suggest principles for the design of more effective international climate change treaties. We invite new researchers to collaborate with the Compon project either by bringing in a new country case (a good project for a PhD thesis) or by adding some expertise.
