Climate Change and Political Strategy

Although the science of climate change is well-established and there are well-known policy instruments that could significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions without prohibitive economic costs, political obstacles to more determined action remain despite heightened concern among mainstream politicians and the public. This book analyses the political dynamics of climate policy in affluent democracies from a number of different theoretical angles in order to improve our understanding of which political strategies would be likely to enable national governments to make deep cuts in GHG emissions while avoiding significant political damage. The authors argue that different conceptual and logical theories highlight different features of political situations. Describing the politics of climate policy in this way will result in different conceptual, logical views of this phenomenon. And to some extent the inferences drawn from such differing views about the nature of political obstacles to more vigorous action on climate change - and the best ways of overcoming them - will also be different. Singly and together, these analyses reveal a more detailed, nuanced view of the political options open to activist governments. This book was previously published as a special issue of Environmental Politics.

Introduction (Hugh Compston, Reader in Politics, Cardiff University, UK) Chapter 1 The Rational Actor Approach (tba) Chapter 2 Public Opinion and Elections (tba) Chapter 3 Policy Networks and Advocacy Coalitions (Stacy VanDeveer, Associate Professor in Political Science, University of New Hampshire, US, and Henrik Selin, Assistant Professor in International Relations, Boston University, US) Chapter 4 Political Economy (tba) Chapter 5 Agenda-setting (Sarah Pralle, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Syracuse University, US) Chapter 6 Theories of Regulation (Ian Bartle, Research Officer, School of Management, University of Bath, UK) Chapter 7 Discourse Theory (Amy Fletcher, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Carina Keskitalo, Associate Professor in Political Science, University of Umea, Sweden) Chapter 8 Risk Analysis (Nick Pidgeon, Professor of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK) Chapter 9 Socio-Technical Transitions (Adrian Smith, Fellow, Science and Technology Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, UK) Chapter 10 Media Analysis (Neil Gavin, Senior Lecturer, School of Politics and Communications Studies, University of Liverpool, UK)