World on Fire: An Exploration into Climate Change Policy

Abstract

This thesis examines climate change policy, specifically the Green New Deal and the Paris Climate Agreement, in relation to Elinor Ostrom's Design Principles for success in governing a common pool resource. This paper aims to describe how climate change is impacting us, what the countries of the world have done to solve this issue in the past, what proposals countries are working on today, and how those proposals fit Ostrom's Design Principles. This project analyzes how design principles are or are not met by both the Green New Deal and the Paris Climate Agreement. This paper discusses questions that are important to ask about the critical analysis of both documents and what was found to be missing. The addition of design principles for a larger scale common pool resource and how that can best be executed is also described.