Is decentralisation always good for climate change mitigation? How federalism has complicated the greening of building policies in Austria

摘要: This paper addresses two related puzzles. The first puzzle is that parts of the environmental federalism literature suggest federal states are ill-equipped to solve nation-wide or global problems such as climate change, but policy scholars usually emphasise opposite. second Austria (a EU Member State) regularly praised an leader has missed its Kyoto target by about 19 %. both puzzles analysing what degree responsible for Austria’s poor mitigation performance. Since nine Austrian provinces mainly regulating building sector accounts 25 % total energy consumption and 13 % greenhouse gas emissions, analysis focuses on integration change in policies. empirical core analyses all major EU, provincial policies aimed green since signing Protocol 1997. After showing these outputs cannot explain considerable sectoral emission reductions, we conclude did not facilitate hinder because it added a vertical dimension already complex horizontal challenge. However, can far failure reach domestically, also only one many independent variables shape mitigation. Finally, argue neither nor laggard, opportunist.