Abstract:
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Typically, conflicts in world environmental negotiations are related, amongst
other aspects, to the level of polarization of the countries in groups with
conflicting interests. Given the predictable relationship between polarization and
conflict, it would seem logical to evaluate the degree to which the distribution of
countries – for example, in terms of their CO2 emissions per capita – would be
structured through groups which in themselves are antagonistic, as well as their
evolution over time. This paper takes the concept of polarization to explore this
distribution for the period 1992-2010, looking at different analytic approaches
related to the concept. Specifically, it makes a comparative evaluation of the
results associated with endogenous multi-polarization measures (i.e. EGR and
DER indices), exogenous measures (i.e. Z-K or multidimensional index) and
strict bipolarization measures (i.e. Wolfson’s measure). Indeed, the interest lies
not only in evaluating the global situation of polarization by comparing the
different approaches and their temporal patterns, but also in examining the
explanatory capacity of the different proxy groups used as a possible reference
for designing global environmental policy from a group premise.
JEL codes: D39; Q43; Q56.
Key words: polarization; carbon emissions; conflict; |