The politics of climate change
In The Politics of Climate Change, Giddens, the Labour peer and former director of the LSE, controversially argues that we do not have a systematic politics of climate change. While the consequences of climate change are potentially catastrophic, the book argues that for most policymakers and citizens it remains only a latent concern. A “politics-as-usual” approach is, therefore, insufficient to tackle this problem. Yet Giddens also argues that the green movement is too flawed to make a real impact on how we overcome the economic and political challenges in mainstream thinking.
By examining the crucial connections between climate change and energy security, Giddens introduces a range of new concepts and policy proposals to fill this gap, such as “foregrounding”, which refers to the use of the various political devices that can be deployed to keep global warming at the core of the political agenda, or “economic convergence”, which refers to the overlap between low-carbon technologies, forms of business practice and lifestyles with economic competitiveness.
The book grew out of a broader cross-party, interdisciplinary project, organised by Policy Network in association with the LSE’s Centre for the Study of Global Governance, that aims to challenge conventional policy thinking on climate change. Although an international agreement is an essential aspect of an effective global response to climate change, the project’s focus is on the need for more urgent national action and the complex political challenges western democracies will encounter in dramatically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades, if they are going to lead to the rest of the world on this issue.
The Policy Network research programme, which concludes with a major international conference on 5 June, was developed through a series of expert seminars at the LSE in the summer and autumn of 2008. The programme’s key conclusions and themes will be published in an upcoming pamphlet in time for this conference.
A copy of the book can be ordered here.