When decentralization strikes back: The example of climate governance in Belgium

• Published in: Revista d'estudis autonòmics i federals no. 37; pp. 93 - 126
• Main Author: Matteo Fermeglia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Catalan; English
• Published: Institut d'Estudis de l'Autogovern 01-06-2023
• Subjects: belgium; climate change; climate governance; decentralisation
• ISSN: 1886-2632
• DOI: 10.57645/20.8080.01.4

This contribution addresses the federal architecture of Belgium to understand its core functioning elements with regard to the country’s climate change governance. For several historic, cultural and political reasons, Belgium bears a heavily decentralised institutional and organisational setup, which, however, provides for several drawbacks when addressing face-offs and cross-cutting policy issues such as climate change. The compartmentalised allocation of powers and the intergovernmental conflicts arising as a result of diverging political stances at different levels of government towards climate action have led to several policy failures. This paper will thus first outline the complex governance structure of the Belgian federal state. While doing so, it will also underscore key formal and informal features underpinning policymaking in Belgium, which are of utmost relevance for climate policy. Next, it will chart such governance structure within the specific context of climate action in Belgium. Last, it will display some examples of climate policy failures to unfold how different tenets of the Belgian system interplay with climate change planning and policy implementation. Notably, Belgium displays an example of how decentralisation could be put at odds with the effective development and implementation of climate policy.