Review of "A Climate of Injustice: Global Inequality, North-South Politics, and Climate Policy," by Timmons J. Roberts and Bradley C. Parks

Kelly Austin

doi:10.5195/jwsr.2008.339

Abstract

Review of "A Climate of Injustice: Global Inequality, North-South Politics, and Climate Policy," by Timmons J. Roberts and Bradley C. Parks

Highlights

Roberts and Parks’s analysis is unique and innovative as it combines a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives. They apply a wide range of interdisciplinary approaches by integrating structuralist theorization, like world-systems theory, with more mainstream theories in International Relations that have typically been used to explain international cooperation
Using path analysis and OLS regression, Roberts and Parks conclude that a narrow export base is strongly predictive of national patterns of risk for climate disasters
Critics might argue that using narrowness of export base as a sole indicator of disadvantaged insertion in the world economy is a severe limitation in their analyses, their “admittedly imperfect” measure does posses a significant degree of explanatory power when applied to climate change vulnerability, responsibly, and mitigation

Summary

Introduction

Roberts and Parks’s analysis is unique and innovative as it combines a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives. In A Climate of Injustice, Roberts and Parks use a theoretically and empirically integrated approach to examine non-cooperation on climate change policy. The preliminary chapters serve to ground readers in theoretical explanations of the North-South stalemate on climate policy, primarily by exploring three dominant perspectives: structuralist theories about the behaviors of states, intermediate theories of international environmental politics, and issues related to the problem structure of climate change.

Results

Conclusion