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Environment, Climate Change and International Relations

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Environment, Climate Change and International Relations This e-book is provided without charge via free download by E-International Relations (www.E-IR.info). It is not permitted to be sold in electronic format under any circumstances. If you enjoy our free e-books, please consider leaving a small donation to allow us to continue investing in open access publications: http://www.e-ir.info/about/donate/ i Environment, Climate Change and International Relations EDITED BY GUSTAVO SOSA-NUNEZ & ED ATKINS ii Environment, Climate Change and International Relations E-International Relations www.E-IR.info Bristol, England First published 2016 ISBN 978-1-910814-09-3 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-910814-11-6 (e-book) This book is published under a under a Creative Commons CC BY- NC-4.0 license. You are free to: • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the following terms: • Attribution — You must giVe appropriate credit, proVide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Any of the aboVe conditions can be waiVed if you get permission. Please contact [email protected] for any such enquiries. Other than the license terms noted aboVe, there are no restrictions placed on the use and dissemination of this book for student learning materials / scholarly use. Copy Editing: Gill Gairdner Production: Lauren Ventura Cover Image: kamchatka via Depositphotos A catalogue record for this book is aVailable from the British Library iii E-IR Edited Collections Series Editors: Stephen McGlinchey, Marianna Karakoulaki and Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska E-IR’s Edited Collections are open access scholarly books presented in a format that preferences breVity and accessibility while retaining academic conVentions. Each book is aVailable in print and e-book, and is published under a CreatiVe Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. As E-International Relations is committed to open access in the fullest sense, free electronic Versions of all of our books, including this one, are aVailable on the E-International Relations website. Find out more at: http://www.e-ir.info/publications Recent titles System, Society and the World: Exploring the English School of International Relations (Second Edition) Restoring Indigenous Self-Determination (new version) Nations under God: The Geopolitics of Faith in the Twenty-frst Century Popular Culture and World Politics: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies Ukraine and Russia: People, Politics, Propaganda and Perspectives Caliphates and Islamic Global Politics (new version) About the E-International Relations website E-International Relations (www.E-IR.info) is the world’s leading open access website for students and scholars of international politics. E-IR’s daily publications feature expert articles, blogs, reViews and interViews – as well as a range of high quality student contributions. The website was established in NoVember 2007 and now reaches oVer 200,000 unique visitors a month. E-IR is run by a registered non-proft organisation based in Bristol, England and staffed with an all-Volunteer team of students and scholars. iv Environment, Climate Change and International Relations About the Editors Gustavo Sosa-Nunez is Associate Professor with the Research Programme in International Cooperation, DeVelopment and Public Policy of the Dr. José María Luis Mora Research Institute (Instituto Mora) in Mexico City. He receiVed his PhD in Politics from the UniVersity of East Anglia. His research interests focus on international enVironmental cooperation, enVironmental and climate change policies at regional leVel (European Union and North America) and national leVel – with air quality and ocean policies both of a particular interest. He is a member of the Mexican Research Network on International Cooperation and DeVelopment (REMECID), among other research associations. Ed Atkins is a PhD Candidate in Energy, EnVironment & Resilience at the UniVersity of Bristol. His doctoral research is focused on the competing perceptions of the enVironment and, in particular, water and how such understandings interact and compete within discourse – utilising the case study of dam construction in contemporary Brazil. This is with a particular focus on the discourses used to defect opposition to important schemes of reform and infrastructure construction. His wider research interests include the narratives of climate change, environmental confict and the Anthropocene. v Abstract To state that climate change and enVironment issues are becoming increasingly important in the realm of International Relations is an understatement. Mitigation and adaptation debates, strategies and mechanisms are all deVeloped at the international leVel, often demonstrating the nuances of international politics and goVernance. Furthermore, the inherent complexities of climate change make it a particularly diffcult phenomenon for international goVernance. Yet, actions at the international leVel continue to proVide the most effectiVe route to tackle the spectre of climate change. In the wake of the 2015 Paris conference, this edited collection proVides an understanding about the complex relationship between International Relations, the enVironment and climate change. It details current tendencies of study, explores the most important routes of assessing enVironmental issues as an issue of international goVernance, and proVides perspectiVes on the route forward. Each contribution in the collection offers an important understanding of how the Paris agreement cannot be the climax. Rather, as this edited collection shows, it is only the start of global efforts. vi Environment, Climate Change and International Relations Contents INTRODUCTION Ed Atkins & Gustavo Sosa-Nunez 1 SECTION I: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS TENDENCIES ON ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE 1 CLIMATE CHANGE, ADAPTATION AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY Mizan R. Khan 14 2 PERSPECTIVES OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE Úrsula Oswald Spring 29 3 ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS: LINKING HUMANITY AND NATURE Simon Dalby 42 4 THE INSTITUTIONALISATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN GLOBAL POLITICS Nina Hall 60 5 REFUSING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM: INTERESTS OF THE FEW, IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MANY Kirsti M. Jylhä 75 SECTION II: ASSESSMENTS – WHICH WAY TO FOLLOW? 6 TRANSVERSAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES Gustavo Sosa-Nunez 87 7 ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICT: A MISNOMER? Ed Atkins 99 8 ACTORS OTHER THAN STATES: ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND NGOS AS DRIVERS OF CHANGE Emilie Dupuits 114 Contents vii 9 GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE FINANCE Simone Lucatello 131 SECTION III: TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK: PERSPECTIVES AS WE CONTINUE WITH OUR LIVES 10 NEW PRACTICES AND NARRATIVES OF ENVIRONMENTAL DIPLOMACY Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær 143 11 CLIMATE CHANGE, GEOPOLITICS, AND ARCTIC FUTURES Duncan Depledge 162 12 RENEWABLE ENERGY: GLOBAL CHALLENGES Lada V. Kochtcheeva 175 13 THE FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT MOVEMENT WITHIN UNIVERSITIES Leehi Yona & Alex Lenferna 190 14 INVESTING IN THE FUTURE: NORWAY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT Matthew Rimmer 206 CONCLUSIONS – LOOKING BEYOND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Gustavo Sosa-Nunez & Ed Atkins 226 CONTRIBUTORS 234 NOTE ON INDEXING 238 viii Environment, Climate Change and International Relations Introduction 1 Introduction Climate Change and International Relations ED ATKINS UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL, UK & GUSTAVO SOSA-NUNEZ INSTITUTO MORA, MEXICO On the 12th November 2015, a group of ffty students from schools across Bristol, UK, sat down to take part in a semi-structured negotiation exercise with one aim: to piece together a positiVe global regime to mitigate and adapt to the shifting spectre of climate change.1 It was a small eVent but had a signifcant takeaway. In piecing together international strategies, all participants were forced to wrestle with the complexity of national interests (be they altruistic or self-interested) on the international plain. The result, in short, was chaos. Greenpeace walked out of negotiations. Brazil seized the microphone from the chairs of the session. Not content with Brazil stealing the limelight, Sweden and Russia followed their lead. Signifcantly, this anarchic nature existed eVen without the complexities of the climate change regime – there was no right to amendments, no need for consensus and limited pressure from outside of the room. It is a miracle that any form of agreement was found – but it was, and it was oVerwhelmingly positiVe. On the 12th December 2015, delegates of almost 200 countries fled into Le Bourget, Paris for the plenary discussion of the United Nations Framework ConVention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of Parties (COP-21). After two weeks of frantic – and often nocturnal – negotiations, a draft agreement was reached. Hailed as a historic juncture in the battle against climatic change, this moment possessed a great promise. An aim of keeping temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the creation of a loss and damages mechanism – although excluding claims of compensation – and the proVision of national climate plans all proVide an important route forward. 1. One of the editors of this collection, Ed Atkins, was lucky enough to play a role in the organisation of this eVent. He would like to extend his thanks to Jack Nicholls, Alice Venn and Chloe Anderson at the UniVersity of Bristol – it would be foolish to mention this day without
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