Скачать или смотреть Tatyana Ruseva: Polycentric Governance & California's Offset Program

09/26/2022
Colloquium Series - Tatyana Ruseva

As one of the leading programs and largest subnational carbon-crediting mechanism in the world, California’s Offset Program and carbon market reflect key aspects of polycentric governance. Participation in the offset program, however, remains low particularly among private forest owners who own most of the forestland in the United States. This paper therefore asks: what system characteristics encourage or discourage participation in California’s carbon market, and which interactions explain participation and the supply of forest offsets? To address these questions, the analysis adopts the Network of Action Situations approach (McGinnis 2011) to evaluate interactions among related decision processes pertaining to the commoditization of forest carbon. Findings show how technically complex rules designed to protect the integrity of offsets create interdependencies via multiple long-term contracts and increase participation costs relative to uncertain future payoffs. Results also highlight the important role of expert and state actors shaping the governance of forest