The Political Economy of National Climate Policy: Cases of U.S.A.,Germany and Japan *

A growing amount of literature in the political economy suggests that the implementation of an environmental policy is limited due to the complexity of the interests of different interest groups and the political dominance of the polluting industries. This paper examines this insufficient implementation of an environmental concept in the case of the climate policy in the U.S.A., Germany and Japan. The focuses of this analysis are the choice, design and implementation of climate policy instruments in these countries. Starting from the fact that interest groups in the policy-making process prefer different policy instruments, the analysis shows which interests are enforced via which political instrument.