Why Bureaucracies Matter for Climate Action
Talk by Gus Greenstein & Diego Salazar-Morales
- Date
- 29 April 2026
- Time
- 12:00 -13:30
- Room
- B9.22
Drawing on data for 125 countries over the 2012–2020 period, they find that higher levels of bureaucratic professionalism are associated with substantially lower CO₂ emissions. Evidence suggests that the main mechanism explaining this link is enhanced policy implementation, not policy creation. Bureaucratic quality may be an even stronger determinant of CO2 mitigation than policy stringency.
Contrary to expectations, they find no evidence to support hypotheses that the effect of bureaucratic quality on emissions varies based on levels of state territorial authority or civil society participation. Their findings suggest that professional bureaucracies are critical to effective climate governance. Building such institutions should be a priority alongside setting ambitious emissions targets.
About the speakers
Greenstein is Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Leiden University. His research focuses on environmental governance and public administration, examining how organizational structures and management practices shape the performance of environmental agencies.
He works with both quantitative and qualitative methods, with projects on topics such as deforestation in Brazil, global forest regulation, World Bank environmental policy, and development finance at USAID.
Gus is on the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Environmental Politics and a Research Fellow at the Earth Systems Governance Project. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, an MPhil from Oxford, and a BA from Amherst College.
Salazar-Morales is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University. His research examines the institutional conditions shaping policy success in the Global South, combining econometrics, qualitative methods, and postcolonial perspectives.
He has held positions at Ulster University, the Hertie School, LSE IDEAS, King’s College London, and others. His work is informed by policy experience in Peru’s Ministry of Education and National Planning Centre, and he has published in leading journals including Governance and Public Management Review.
Diego is founder of the Instituto de Estudios Políticos Andinos (IEPA) and co-founder of the Observatory of Executive Power.
