What'S Wrong With Climate Politics And How To Fix It

Governments have failed to stem global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases causing climate change. Indeed, climate-changing pollution is increasing globally, and will do so for decades to come without far more aggressive action. But what explains this failure to effectively tackle one of the world’s most serious problems? And what can we do about it?

To answer these questions, What’s Wrong with Climate Politics and How to Fix It looks at climate politics as a doctor might look at a very sick patient. It performs urgent diagnoses and prescribes vital treatments to revive our ailing planet before it’s too late.

Part I diagnoses what’s most wrong with climate politics, including the anachronistic international system, which encourages nations to fight for their narrowly perceived interests and makes major cuts in greenhouse pollution extraordinarily difficult; the deadlock between the United States and China, which together produce over one-third of global greenhouse gas pollution but do little more than demand that the other act first; and affluent lifestyles and overconsumption, which are spreading rapidly from industrialized nations to the developing world, with many millions of people joining the global consumer class.

Part II prescribes several ‘remedies’ for the failed politics of climate change - ranging from a new kind of climate diplomacy and a campaign for simultaneously enhancing human wellbeing and environmental sustainability to national policies that put the common but differentiated responsibilities of individuals alongside those of nations. While these treatments are aspirational, they are not intended to be utopian. As Paul Harris’s incisive analysis shows, they are genuine, workable solutions to what ails the politics of climate change today.

Paul G. Harris is Chair Professor of global and environmental studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.