Do Multilateral Environmental Agreements Explain Vulnerability to Climate Change in Developing Countries?

Abstract Developing countries (DCs), despite their low contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, are now among the most active countries in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). This growing interest of developing countries in multilateral environmental agreements comes at a time when the scale of climate change and its consequences for developing countries are tending to increase. This article, therefore, aims to examine the role of MEAs in the vulnerability of developing countries to climate change. The study is conducted using panel data collected from 72 developing countries between 1995 and 2017. The results obtained by the two stages least squares method applied on a fixed effects panel show that MEAs reduce the vulnerability to climate change of DCs. However, the results also show that this effect varies according to the sector or the component of vulnerability to climate change considered. Thus, it appears that MEAs reduce vulnerability to climate change in the ecosystem, infrastructure, housing, and water sectors, whereas they increase vulnerability to climate change in the food and health sectors. Furthermore, the effect of MEAs on vulnerability to climate change increases with the degree of preparedness of developing countries to effectively use climate change adaptation investments. Finally, the results show that the level of development and the geographical location of developing countries have an impact on their vulnerability to climate change. JEL Classification: Q40, Q54, Q58