Policy networks as barriers to green tax reform: The case of CO₂‐taxes in Norway

How the global and national levels interrelate in climate policymaking: Foreign Policy Analysis and the case of Carbon Capture Storage in Norway's foreign policy

“…4 Pioneering policies also in other environmental domains earned the country a reputation as an "ecological state". This early adoption of macroeconomic climate policies was partly due to a consensus-oriented parliamentary system where institutionalized economic interests and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) took part to find viable strategies (Dryzek, 2005;Kasa, 2000). Internationally, Norway took a proactive role in the push for an ambitious climate change regime (Eckersley, 2015).…”

Designing green taxes in a political context: from optimal to feasible environmental regulation

“…The potential winners were the labour-intensive retail sector and service industries. In line with the theoretical argument, these two sectors, as potential winners, did little to support the government proposal, whereas the energy-intensive industries, as potential losers, put considerable effort into opposing the tax and eventually succeeded in having the proposal voted down in parliament [Kasa, 2000]. Given these incentive structures, it is difficult to impose a tax high enough to create noticeable incentive effects.…”

The constrained influence of discourses: the case of Norwegian climate policy

“…Environmental taxation had been applied on only a few issues previously (Kasa 2000), whereas regulatory instruments 3 formed the main policy response to environmental problems until then. The economic rationale approach, materialised in the carbon tax, therefore represented a break with rather than a prolongation of existing environmental policy in Norway (Reitan 2001).…”

“…Throughout the 1980s monetarist, supply-side policies gained popularity at the expense of Keynesianism in Norwegian economic orthodoxy (Tranøy, cited in Kasa 2000). Concurrently, regulatory measures were met with criticism for being ineffective and costly.…”

“…Previous research has addressed specific parts of Norwegian climate policy, such as CO 2 taxes (Kasa 2000), the gas debate (Hovden andLindseth 2004, Tjernshaugen 2007), carbon capture and storage (Tjernshaugen 2011) and political actors (Gullberg and Skodvin 2011), or they are more comprehensive studies of the climate policymaking process (Bolstad 1993, Sydnes 1996, Reitan 1998, Nilsen 2001, Andresen and Butenschøn 2001. This article contributes to the existing literature on Norwegian climate policy by the focus on ruling discourses and their epistemic basis.…”