Democracy, interest groups and compliance with the Kyoto Protocol

This paper seeks to give insights into how domestic voters form their preferences pro or contra compliance with IEAs and therefore how public concern for the environment and interest group activity influence national compliance behaviour. Three hypotheses are developed. First, compliance behaviour is positively influenced by a high concern for climate change and second, by a high number of ENGOs. Third, a strong prevalence of industry interests is assumed to be connected with lower compliance. A panel data analysis on compliance with the Kyoto Protocol by Annex B countries is applied in order to test these hypotheses. The empirical findings give evidence for the first and the third one.