ABSTRACT
Institutions are at the heart of societal progress and advancement. Climate change institutions are more complex than other types of institutions because climate change is a cross-cutting issue that is not restricted to a single institution. Climate change requires high levels of coordination and access to resources, both human and financial. This study examines the characteristics of climate change institutional arrangements in five countries. In spite of different conditions existing in these countries, there is a high level of similarity in institutional arrangements. All five countries have a Ministerial level or official level coordinating body on climate change that make important policy decisions that affect climate change. In some countries, the body is chaired by the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister and included other relevant Ministers such as Energy, Trade and Industry and Finance. This underscores the cross-cutting nature of climate change and the need for coordination at the highest level. In all five countries, climate change policies or action plans had been launched and were being implemented. To address climate change, all five countries had either climate policies or climate legislation in place. They had also set up either permanent or ad-hoc technical bodies to help in policy-formulation and implementation. They also had permanent or ad hoc arrangements for stakeholder consultations. Finally, they all had Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems in place. This high level of institutional similarity could be due to institutional isomorphism.