Who is driving? Public and private agency in the implementation of the CDM

Abstract

This article studies the Kyoto Protocol's CDM as an example of hybrid governance, involving both public and private actors, and uses the concept of agency to explore the influence of public and private actors in the governance of the CDM over time. Even though public actors formally govern the CDM, the delegation of project implementation and supervision to private companies has created ample opportunities for private actors to exert agency as 'street-level bureaucrats', and in practice both public and private actors have been able to influence how the mechanism has developed. In order to understand the effects of hybrid governance, we therefore need to study the dynamics of the governance process. © 2013 Future Science Ltd.