Climate change in world politics

Abstract

Writing a broad overview of international climate change politics is a daunting task. What to focus on from its bewildering array of initiatives and how to make sense of the seemingly endless spectacular United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conferences, which always seem in the end to disappoint? Nevertheless, faced with this challenge, John Vogler has pulled off an impressive feat: to distil the extraordinary complexity of climate politics down to its essential elements (as Vogler sees them) and explain them engagingly and succinctly. His express aim is to provide readers with an overview of the key elements in international climate politics, and to situate them both theoretically in relation to key ideas and themes in International Relations (IR) theory, and historically in relation to the structural changes that have occurred in global politics since climate change appeared on the international agenda in the late 1980s. After providing some general context in terms of different ways that climate change has been framed in international politics (chapter two) and an overview of the UNFCCC (chapter three), Vogler shifts his focus on to different theoretical concepts and how they help us understand climate politics. He highlights the ongoing usefulness of realist and liberal approaches in understanding the dynamics of international cooperation and the importance of overall power structures and state interests in shaping how the UNFCCC was formed and has evolved (see chapter four in particular). But he also draws on constructivist theories to highlight the importance of reputation and recognition (chapter six) and to understand some important dynamics, such as the value host states attach to the (perceived) success of the Conference of the Parties they host, the power of naming and shaming campaigns, the politics of asserting ‘leadership’ on climate change, and the reputational dynamics of forming and being part of ‘clubs’ of states on the issue. And he uses normative theories in IR to help understand the importance of justice to the climate change negotiations (chapter five).