ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors study to what extent national environmental policy dynamics are affected by processes of international policy diffusion and policy convergence. While diffusion captures the scope and speed of environmental policy adoption across countries, convergence refers to the changes in the similarity of environmental policy portfolios over time. From the outset it is not clear if processes of diffusion and convergence – when they actually occur – are a good or a bad thing with regard to the design of effective policy solutions for environmental problems. In particular, we do not know how convergence and diffusion affect overall policy ambitions in terms of the size and regulatory stringency of national policy portfolios. To take a closer empirical look at these effects, the authors complement existing empirical evidence by studying (1) the spread of different types of environmental policy targets and instruments and (2) changes in the similarity of national environmental policy portfolios over time. Their findings indicate that diffusion and convergence should generally help to strengthen the capacity of national governments to address environmental problems. Moreover, the EU (and international cooperation more generally) constitutes a crucial factor in reinforcing this relationship.
