Policy preferences and the diversity of instrument choice for mitigating climate change impacts in the transport sector

Different policy approaches and responses to common environmental challenges, such as climate change, exist between countries, and sometimes even within countries. This situation arises because public policy-makers are not only driven by concerns of theoretical purity but are also influenced by a range of social, political, economic, cultural and administrative matters when selecting techniques or instruments to achieve specific policy goals. This article examines whether the diversity of stated policy instruments to tackle climate change mitigation in the transport sector can be explained according to national policy preferences in a European context. It also investigates whether the mix of national climate change policy instruments for transport exhibits temporal stability, even after national changes in political power. To do so, the article reviews a series of national policy documents that address climate change in the transport sector in four European countries with contrasting administrative traditions – France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.