Rethinking Policy Coherence in Climate Governance: Addressing Power Dynamics and Governance Gaps in Developed and Developing Contexts

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of achieving policy coherence (PC) in climate change governance, with a particular focus on contextual differences between developed and developing countries. Drawing on a systematic literature review, the study highlights the growing recognition of PC as a critical principle for integrating climate and development goals. However, it reveals that operationalizing PC is often constrained by governance gaps, economic dependencies, and external pressures, particularly in resource-constrained developing contexts. The findings underscore a surge in research on policy coherence, especially after 2015, driven by international frameworks like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. However, this growth often reflects the influence of international organizations and donor priorities, which impose top-down solutions that may fail to align with local realities in developing countries. While developed countries benefit from relatively stable institutions that support organic policy integration, developing countries frequently struggle with fragmented governance, limited technical capacity, and dependency on external funding. These structural barriers challenge their ability to achieve coherence based on domestic priorities rather than donor requirements. Conceptually, the study highlights that PC encompasses multiple dimensions, including vertical alignment across governance levels, horizontal coordination across sectors, and balancing trade-offs between climate mitigation and adaptation. Yet, frameworks promoting coherence often oversimplify these dimensions, neglecting the political and economic trade-offs involved in policymaking. Methodologically, the existing studies predominantly rely on qualitative approaches such as case studies and content analysis, providing rich insights but limiting generalizability. Quantitative methods and tools—such as coherence indicators and nexus frameworks—remain underutilized, constraining efforts to systematically evaluate synergies and trade-offs across governance levels. The study emphasizes the need for mixed-method approaches that integrate qualitative and quantitative tools to strengthen assessments of policy coherence. This paper also highlights the role of institutions, ideas, and interests as key determinants of coherence, while emphasizing the importance of addressing power dynamics and governance fragmentation. Institutional factors, such as coordination mechanisms and legal frameworks, are central to achieving coherence, but their effectiveness is often undermined by political and economic dependencies in developing countries. Ideational factors, including global frameworks like the SDGs, provide normative benchmarks, yet their uniform application often disregards local priorities and constraints. Interest-based factors, such as political leadership and economic priorities, further influence coherence, particularly in contexts where short-term economic imperatives conflict with long-term climate goals. In conclusion, this paper argues for a paradigm shift from a technocratic approach to a more political and context-sensitive framework for achieving PC. Addressing power asymmetries, governance gaps, and economic constraints is essential for fostering meaningful policy integration, particularly in resource-constrained contexts. The study contributes to climate governance by advocating for localized strategies that align global frameworks with national priorities and socio-economic realities. It also calls for future research to adopt political economy analyses to better understand how external and internal forces shape policy coherence in climate governance.