Religion and the international politics of climate change

Abstract

Climate change is arguably one of the biggest challenges of our times. Impacts of human-induced climate change can be seen and felt all over the world: in 2020, new record high temperatures were measured, rising sea levels put islands and coastal towns at risk, deforestation and rising temperatures endangered the livelihoods of indigenous communities worldwide, and heatwaves and wildfires have devastated Australia, the western United States and Brazil alike. No wonder the UN Secretary-General Ant—nio Guterres calls climate change the defining issue of our time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in their 2018 report that the world had to cut carbon emissions considerably before 2030 in order to limit the increase of global average temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels (IPCC 2018). As an issue with global impact, climate change poses a prime example of a problem that transcends state-boundaries and needs to be addressed through transnational governance. Over nearly thirty years, international politics has engaged with the question how to limit climate change and shown an increasing sense of urgency in communication and political action. While there is a general conviction that collective efforts and changes are needed on the national, local and individual levels to address this problem, the international arena is still seen as the key site to set political ambition and develop a legally binding framework to facilitate and further necessary political changes on all levels.