Exposing the Paradoxes of Climate and Energy Governance

Abstract

What's Wrong with Climate Politics, and How to Fix It. By Paul G. Harris. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013. 296 pp., $21.80 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-745-65251-1). Institutionalizing Unsustainability: The Paradox of Global Climate Governance. By Hayley Stevenson. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012. 308 pp., $29.67 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-938-16902-1). Influenced by an obsession with economics and technology, most energy and climate analysts frequently ask the wrong questions. They will ponder how large proven reserves of oil and gas are being extracted rather than challenging the need to utilize oil and gas in the first place, or asking whether oil and gas infrastructures are fair to their workers or the communities that live near them. They will assess and model energy prices and technological learning curves, rather than ask how existing energy infrastructures benefit some people to the exclusion of others. They will map energy and climate scenarios, track atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, and discuss the pros or pitfalls of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but refrain from interrogating the underlying logic behind an international economic system that continues to emit dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases. The standard dogma of climate change discourse—that it is a technical problem best left to experts and scientists to resolve—is so entrenched that it is incredibly refreshing when knowledgeable people offer an alternative view. It is even more rewarding when their analysis is penetrating, well written, and well argued, as is the case with both Paul G. Harris's (2013) What's Wrong with Climate Politics and Hayley Stevenson's (2012) Institutionalizing Unsustainability . Harris begins by arguing that there are three fundamental reasons we have failed to develop adequate political responses to climate change. The “cancer of Westphalia” refers to an international system which encourages countries to fight for narrow, short-term interests. The “malignancy of great polluters” refers to the inability of the United States and China to do anything about it. The “addictions of modernity” refer to growing levels of pollution that accompany our modern lifestyles. This tripartite framing of challenges then leads us to Harris's three solutions. We should seek …