Failure and opportunity: environmental groups in US climate change policy

Abstract

The United States has failed to develop an effective policy to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change. This policy failure is the result of many factors, one of which is the inherent limitations of ‘interest group politics’ in producing the kinds of broad political and economic changes required to reduce the threat of disruptive climate change. This article first examines interest group politics in environmental policymaking, emphasising the role of groups in institutionalising the broad social movement that produced modern environmentalism in America. It then explores the nature of climate change and its political and policy implications, and explains why an interest-group-centred model of policymaking is insufficient to address the threat posed by climate change. It then analyses what kind of political actions might be better suited to produce the kinds of dramatic policy developments the likely consequences of climate change compel us to make.