Place-Based Policy in Climate Change: Flexible and Path-Dependent Elements

The idea of place-based policy, the collaborative management of issues specific to a geographic area, has been widely used in the context of climate change. The outstanding features of more coherence across countries or the ability to address complex environmental aspects in an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental way made it an attractive tool for governments. Often emphasized is also the flexibility of placed-based approaches (PBAs) in terms of adapting to changes and tailoring policy accordingly. However, every policy within an administration also carries the burden of being path. This bares the question of how much flexibility PBAs need regarding environmental issues and how much consistency would be necessary to succeed. The article explores these questions and develops a framework with four adaption options based on cases in the field of carbon tax and carbon emission policy in British Columbia (Canada), New Zealand, Oregon (USA), and Quebec (Canada).