Social barriers to implementing climate policy measures: [private actors' influence on the Swiss CO2 law]

Abstract

The influence of firms on the elaboration of climate policy in a democratic system is quite controversial. Firms do not form a solid bloc of opponents to environmental regulation. Some firms even expect to gain from such regulation, either because they offer goods and services that will allow other firms to comply with the regulation or because they are in a better position to comply than their competitors. As a result, the detailed features of climate policy are more important than the general thrust. Firms and industry associations could try to influence those features rather than oppose the policy upfront. Building on the literature on interest group influence, this paper contributes to the issues of acceptability and effective implementation of climate policy measures. The paper investigates how the positions of the Swiss business community are transmitted into the decision making process of the Swiss CO2 law. Data for the empirical analysis are drawn from the two consultations on the Swiss CO2 law and the word protocols of the Swiss Parliament.