Nils Droste

Regime Effectiveness of Climate Protection: Adapting Elinor Ostrom's Institutional Design Principles Nils Droste

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Environmental Policy, grade: 1,5, University of Bremen (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), language: English, abstract: The climate system as an atmospheric sink for greenhouse gas emissions can be understood as a common pool resource. Without a global institution to regulate the use of it is likely to exceed the natural rate of recovery. Elinor Ostrom derived institutional design principles for effectively managed common pool resources (CPR). This work explores which insights can be drawn from an adaptation to the climate system. It is one of the largest and most complex CPRs. And, it is not yet effectively managed. Seeking reasons the author arguments which of the institutional design principles are not implemented in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and related treaties. The main findings are that a) graduated sanctions and b) a congruence between emissions and regional conditions are missing in the UNFCCC. Also a fostered leadership role in the negotiations or a shift in global norms could help to protect the climate.