Analyzing the Causes and Consequences of Policy Incoherence in the Context of the Global Climate and Development Agendas

Many have argued that coherent policymaking, i.e., policymaking that maximizes synergies and minimizes trade-offs, is key to successful implementation of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. These arguments tend to be grounded in an apolitical approach, which sees incoherence as an outcome of institutions’ shortcomings, which can be rectified by greater attention to institutional arrangements. Increasingly, however, scholars recognize that barriers to policy coherence may also be rooted in inherently conflicting interests and mandates. At the same time, arguments about the importance of coherence reflect a broader assumption that coherence contributes to greater effectiveness and achievement of policy goals. Many see coherence as vital to ensuring that progress towards goals is balanced and equitable for all groups of society, in keeping with the central pledge of the 2030 Agenda to ‘leave no one behind’. Empirical evidence linking coherence to goal achievement and equity is, however, surprisingly sparse. These assumptions raise important questions about the political causes and consequences of policy incoherence. What political factors inhibit coherence? Is coherence a necessary condition for the successful and equitable implementation of the climate and development agendas? Which groups in society suffer from the outcomes of incoherence?
We present a novel two-part framework for analyzing the causes and consequences of policy incoherence. The first part of the framework uses the ‘3 I’s’ approach (institutions, interests, ideas) to examine political influences on coherence in the policy process. The second part uses an ‘outcomes’ approach to examine whether and how incoherence inhibits progress toward goals. Specifically, we ask whether a lack of progress towards goals is unequally distributed and/or affects some groups in society more than others. We conclude by introducing how the framework is currently being applied to analyze policy coherence between the global climate and development agendas across national contexts.