Corruption and climate crisis

There is a nearly universal agreement that corruption is not a desirable attribute for societies. We hear about corruption taking lives of mothers and children, vulnerable populations in the wake of natural disasters, preventing access to resources and basic public services. It hampers implementation of policies, tax compliance, disrupts trust. We have all the reasons to believe the corruption is harmful to the efforts of climate action as well. However, we have little empirical evidence that it is. This study addresses this research gap and uses statistical data on climate change mitigation efforts – policy output and outcomes - to test whether corruption indeed is one of the problems that prevents the world from reaching climate goals.