Description: What has happened globally on the climate change issue? How have countries' positions differed over time, and why? How are problems and politics developing on an increasingly globalised planet, and can we find a solution? This book explores these questions and more, explaining the key underlying issues of the conflicts between international blocs. The negotiation history is systematically presented in five phases, demonstrating the evolution of decision-making. The book discusses the coalitions, actors and potential role of the judiciary, as well as human rights issues in addressing the climate change problem. It argues for a methodical solution through global law and constitutionalism, which could provide the quantum jump needed in addressing the problem of climate governance. This fascinating and accessible account will be a key resource for policymakers and NGOs, and also for researchers and graduate students in climate policy, geopolitics, climate change, environmental policy and law, and international relations.
Brief description: Joyeeta Gupta is Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South, in the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She also works as part of the scientific steering committees of many different international programmes including the Global Water Systems project and the Earth System Governance project. Professor Gupta is Editor-in-Chief of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics and is on the editorial board of several journals, including the Carbon and Law Review, Environmental Science and Policy, and new journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. Her published work includes writing as a lead author for both the IPCC Report which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore and also the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment which won the Zaved Second Prize, in addition to several books on climate change including The Climate Change Convention and Developing Countries: From Conflict to Consensus? (1997) and Our Simmering Planet: What to do About Global Warming (2001). She is also the co-editor of Mainstreaming Climate Change in Development Cooperation (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Review Quotes: "Joyeeta Gupta's analytical history tour of a quarter-century of climate change negotiations provides a good entry point for newcomers and a pause for reflection by veterans. The former will benefit from the foundations of her analysis in climate science and sustainability, while the latter will be intrigued by her outreach to the domains of international law and human rights."
Michael Zammit Cutajar, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC secretariat, 1991-2002, and Chairman, Guardian of Future Generations, under the Sustainable Development Act (2012), Malta