Green budgeting in an age of austerity: a transatlantic comparative perspective

The integration of environmental concerns into government fiscal cycles, or green budgeting, is an increasingly popular means of pursuing environmental policy, but the global spread of green budgeting norms has been uneven. However, recent stimulus packages employed by advanced economies to promote economic growth integrate a strong green element. This raises questions about how the current desire for fiscal austerity interacts with existing factors that constrain or facilitate environmental policy via budgeting. By drawing on theoretical arguments that argue that macro ‘politics matters’ in budget composition, we develop an analytical framework for explaining budgeting practices. This framework is employed to examine green budgeting in two leading but otherwise contrasting industrialised economies: the United States and the United Kingdom. Our analysis suggests that key veto players have often set the green budgeting agenda in the current age of austerity.