Improving the climate change mitigation regime of major emitting countries: The case of South Africa, China, Germany and the United States of America

The recent report (the Sixth Assessment Report of Working Group 1) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change clearly points to the urgency of global climate action. Optimal governance regimes are necessary for climate change mitigation in major greenhouse gas-emitting countries and economic sectors. Given our study's domain, the 'climate change governance' concept suffices as our theoretical framework. Adopting comparative legal and policy analysis and the case study approach, we examine the climate governance regimes in four regional carbon-intensive countries - South Africa, China, Germany, and the United States of America - with the primary objective of identifying areas for improving their regulatory capacity to mitigate climate change. Thus, we examine the relationship between climate policy goals/targets, the prevailing policy environment, and supportive strategies for achieving policy goals in our case study countries. Drawing on the climate governance literature, we adopt 'target setting', 'supportive measures/strategies', 'comprehensiveness', and 'oversight body' as the indices for our analysis. Our results reveal striking similarities and contrasts in the focus countries, signalling opportunities for improvements across different parameters. The study suggests the need for policy symmetry between governance (emissions reduction) goals and regime design elements such as proportional supportive strategies and comprehensive coverage of carbon-intensive economy sectors. We also canvass the necessity of avoiding policy and institutional fragmentations that hamper the emergence of clear and well-coordinated climate policy direction in countries. As climate change governance is now at a critical juncture, this study will significantly improve the regimes of our focus countries and other jurisdictions with similar peculiarities.