UC Santa Barbara

In the face of the global climate crisis, wealthy states have pledged international aid to support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. Existing studies of climate aid have three limitations. Results regarding donor preferences are inconsistent. Climate aid is viewed as the same as other types of foreign aid, and donors are treated as unitary actors, ignoring domestic interests and domestic institutions. As a result, existing research does not provide a comprehensive explanation for variation in state contributions to climate aid. This project seeks to unpack the black box of donor state preferences, examining the relative influence of the fossil fuel and renewable energy industries on donor states’ climate aid contributions as a proportion of total overseas development assistance. The research tests three sets of hypotheses: (1) The fossil fuel industry is likely to be influential when it is a major provider of the energy consumed in the state; (2) The renewable energy industry is likely to be influential when it has potential to be a major energy provider in the future; (3) The domestic institutional context in which these industries operate shapes the relative influence of both industries. The dissertation employs a cross-sectional time series analysis from 2002-2015 to investigate these relationships in 28 OECD donor states. The findings are that more renewable electricity production and more fossil fuel consumption within a state is correlated with higher amounts of climate aid provided by that state. In addition, when the renewable energy industry is growing at a faster rate than the fossil fuel industry, this is correlated with more climate aid provided by that state, specifically when that state has strong democratic institutions. The results expand our understanding of what shapes donors’ climate preferences and what additional barriers exist to climate aid.