Strategic Trade Policy als Response to Climate Change? The Political Economy of Climate Policy

Based on German experiences, this paper discusses the political economy of climate protection. The objective is to come to a better understanding of why climate change has become one of the main topics at the domestic agenda in some countries, despite the fact that there are obvious free-riding problems resulting in increasing difficulties for international policy coordination. Using a strategic trade policy framework, the paper theoretically discusses the incentives for domestic policymakers to advocate an ambitious climate policy and assesses these incentives empirically with econometric methods.