Two birds with one stone? Exploring the role of climate change mitigation in development cooperation: The case of Energy and Environment Partnership with the Mekong Region.
TUOMINEN, VISA (2011)
2011
Kansainvälinen politiikka - International Relations
Johtamiskorkeakoulu - School of Management
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2011-12-19
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-22043
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-22043
Tiivistelmä
This Master's thesis explores the role of climate change mitigation in a development cooperation program. The case chosen for exploring this issue was a Finnish development cooperation program, the Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) with the Mekong Region. EEP Mekong presented a good case for investigating the recent trend in which climate change is increasingly being mainstreamed into development cooperation.
The industrialized countries have committed to provide 0.7% of their gross national income for development cooperation. More recently the industrialized countries have pledged to support developing countries in climate change related activities. Concerns have been raised that the new pledges for climate finance are diverting funds from development cooperation. This study can be seen to represent a case of a donor initiated development cooperation program, funded with official development aid, in which climate change has significantly influenced the design of the program.
This issue was approached from a constructivist point of view. The research was carried out looking at norm diffusion and how norms influence the program, and the research question was: how does the norm of climate change mitigation diffuse and inform behavior in the EEP Mekong? The empirical focus in this study was on the norm of climate change mitigation, how actors understand it and how it informs behavior within the program. This issue was discussed in the context of development cooperation, and in order to understand the issue better, this paper also analyzed the norms of poverty reduction and ownership in the EEP.
A mission to the Mekong region took place in the beginning of 2011. Eight interviews conducted during the mission form the main data used in this study. In addition, interviews were conducted with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Nordic Development Fund. Documents of the program were used to complement the material collected with the interviews.
The main findings of this study point out that the EEP Mekong is, indeed, strongly geared towards climate change mitigation and outcomes for poverty reduction can be questioned. Mitigating climate change turned out to be taken-for-granted in the program. The norm of climate change mitigation can be said to be diffused to the EEP and inform the program. However, it seemed that it was the idea of mitigating climate change that was the key concern, not achieving significant emission reduction. As such, the content of the norm of climate change mitigation had changed from what it was originally taken to prescribe. Although diffused, norms do not always have their intended effect. The norm of ownership did not seem to be subscribed to on many levels in the program. There were indications that this was due to the fact, that the content of the norm was understood differently by different actors.
Asiasanat:climate change mitigation, development cooperation, norm diffusion
The industrialized countries have committed to provide 0.7% of their gross national income for development cooperation. More recently the industrialized countries have pledged to support developing countries in climate change related activities. Concerns have been raised that the new pledges for climate finance are diverting funds from development cooperation. This study can be seen to represent a case of a donor initiated development cooperation program, funded with official development aid, in which climate change has significantly influenced the design of the program.
This issue was approached from a constructivist point of view. The research was carried out looking at norm diffusion and how norms influence the program, and the research question was: how does the norm of climate change mitigation diffuse and inform behavior in the EEP Mekong? The empirical focus in this study was on the norm of climate change mitigation, how actors understand it and how it informs behavior within the program. This issue was discussed in the context of development cooperation, and in order to understand the issue better, this paper also analyzed the norms of poverty reduction and ownership in the EEP.
A mission to the Mekong region took place in the beginning of 2011. Eight interviews conducted during the mission form the main data used in this study. In addition, interviews were conducted with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Nordic Development Fund. Documents of the program were used to complement the material collected with the interviews.
The main findings of this study point out that the EEP Mekong is, indeed, strongly geared towards climate change mitigation and outcomes for poverty reduction can be questioned. Mitigating climate change turned out to be taken-for-granted in the program. The norm of climate change mitigation can be said to be diffused to the EEP and inform the program. However, it seemed that it was the idea of mitigating climate change that was the key concern, not achieving significant emission reduction. As such, the content of the norm of climate change mitigation had changed from what it was originally taken to prescribe. Although diffused, norms do not always have their intended effect. The norm of ownership did not seem to be subscribed to on many levels in the program. There were indications that this was due to the fact, that the content of the norm was understood differently by different actors.
Asiasanat:climate change mitigation, development cooperation, norm diffusion