Industry type and environmental policy: Industry characteristics shape the potential for policymaking success in energy and the environment

When can complex multi-round environmental policymaking like that seen in climate be successful? An emerging branch of literature examines how sequencing matters to success and under what circumstances path dependent dynamics can lead to increasingly stringent climate and environmental policy. Here, I propose an industry typology that divides industry into four categories based on their relationship and likely response to early regulatory policy moves. I use a series of case studies that compare the application of this typology across issue areas internationally, looking comparatively at ozone and climate change policymaking; and subnationally across U.S. states in the climate change issue area. Using these case studies, I show how this model for understanding different mixes of industry type can help us understand and predict the likelihood of policy-industry feedback that leads to increasing environmental and renewable energy policy success over time, both at the international level and comparatively across national and sub-national jurisdictions.