The European Union in International Climate Change Politics

The European Union in International Climate Change Politics
Author: Rudiger K.W. Wurzel
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2016-11-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317237307

In recent years climate change has emerged as an issue of central political importance while the EU has become a major player in international climate change politics. How can a ‘leaderless Europe’ offer leadership in international climate change politics - even in the wake of the UK’s Brexit decision? This book, which has been written by leading experts, offers a critical analysis of the EU leadership role in international climate change politics. It focuses on the main EU institutions, core EU member states and central societal actors (businesses and environmental NGOs). It also contains an external perspective of the EU’s climate change leadership role with chapters on China, India and the USA as well as Norway. Four core themes addressed in the book are: leadership, multilevel and polycentric governance, policy instruments, and the green and low carbon economy. Fundamentally, it asks why we have EU institutional actors, why certain member states and particular societal actors tried to take on a leadership role in climate change politics and how, if at all, have they managed to achieve this? This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU studies and politics, international relations, comparative politics and environmental politics.

Climate Politics in Small European States

Climate Politics in Small European States
Author: Neil Carter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2020-12-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000288862

The characteristics of small states generate multiple and contradictory expectations concerning their climate policies and politics. Do small states perceive themselves as market- and rule-takers, which are largely irrelevant to a global problem, and which must prioritise international competitiveness above climate policy goals? Or do their institutions and their small size foster consensus, coordination, and nimble responses to a changing international scene, allowing them to attain competitive advantages and become climate leaders? Climate Politics in Small European States examines how the characteristics of small states structure climate politics and both enable and constrain ambitious climate policies. This volume contributes to our knowledge of how institutions, including electoral institutions and institutions of interest intermediation, actors such as parties, interest groups, individuals, governments, and ideas shape climate policy and politics. The volume also contributes to redressing a deficit in the attention given to smaller states in the study of comparative climate politics. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Environmental Politics.

Small States Inside and Outside the European Union

Small States Inside and Outside the European Union
Author: Laurent Goetschel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 306
Release: 1998-10-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780792382805

Small States in and outside the European Union offers a broad overview of the small states problematic in Europe. It touches upon definition issues, history, security policy, neutrality, EU institutional aspects and also includes contributors from Central and Eastern European countries. It presents a thorough analysis of different scenarios for EU institutional reform and their repercussions on the influence of small member states. The comparative results are visualized in tables. The work contains several contributions from practitioners who give insight into policy games and issues of national sensitivity not usually covered by purely scholarly publications. The European environment has changed dramatically through the processes of regional integration and rising interdependence. Relations between European states both inside and outside the EU are governed as never before by rules, norms, and fixed procedures. The book investigates the consequences of these developments on the foreign and security policy of small states. Academics and professionals from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland, as well as from the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, elaborate on these issues. Institutional regulations and traditional power politics as well as the foreign and security policy traditions of the states concerned, including the question of neutrality, are investigated. In addition, the book identifies the main interests of small states in today's Europe and offers an overview of different strategies these states apply in the realm of foreign and security policy. The book is interesting for the case studies it offers as well as for the reflections it contains regarding fundamental questions of the essence of statehood in today's Europe.

Climate Change Policy in the European Union

Climate Change Policy in the European Union
Author: Andrew Jordan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2010-04-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139486020

The European Union (EU) has emerged as a leading governing body in the international struggle to govern climate change. The transformation that has occurred in its policies and institutions has profoundly affected climate change politics at the international level and within its 27 Member States. But how has this been achieved when the EU comprises so many levels of governance, when political leadership in Europe is so dispersed and the policy choices are especially difficult? Drawing on a variety of detailed case studies spanning the interlinked challenges of mitigation and adaptation, this volume offers an unrivalled account of how different actors wrestled with the complex governance dilemmas associated with climate policy making. Opening up the EU's inner workings to non-specialists, it provides a perspective on the way that the EU governs, as well as exploring its ability to maintain a leading position in international climate change politics.

The Role of Small States in the European Union

The Role of Small States in the European Union
Author: Baldur Thorhallsson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2017-03-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 135188252X

A fully documented text which addresses a key issue of EU decision-making which is surfacing again in proposed institutional reforms. It looks at the role of smaller states, deals with the important criteria of distribution and redistribution of EU budgetary expenditures in the key areas of agriculture and structural funds and explains how smaller states promote their interest more effectively than larger states. It focuses on the administrations of small states, their relations with the Commission and their negotiation tactics in the Council. This is the first attempt to empirically test Peter Katzenstein’s thesis on the role of smaller states in international relations by making important recommendations on how the core assumptions of Katzenstein need to be modified, especially when applied to the EU context. This work is a good supplementary text book for courses on European studies, comparative politics and international relations. It is particularly suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

False Alarm

False Alarm
Author: Bjorn Lomborg
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2020-07-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1541647483

An “essential” (Times UK) and “meticulously researched” (Forbes) book by “the skeptical environmentalist” argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world. Enough, argues bestselling author Bjorn Lomborg. Climate change is real, but it's not the apocalyptic threat that we've been told it is. Projections of Earth's imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education. False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong -- and points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all.

Politics of Climate Change

Politics of Climate Change
Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2009-05-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 074564693X

"Climate change differs from any other problem that, as collective humanity, we face today. If it goes unchecked, the consequences are likely to be catastrophic for human life on earth. Yet for most people, and for many policy-makers too, it tends to be a 'back of the mind' issue. ... [This book] argues controversially, we do not have a systematic politics of climate change. Politics-as-usual won't allow us to deal with the problems we face, while the recipes of the main challenger to orthodox politics, the green movement, are flawed at source." - cover.

European Union Foreign Policy and the Global Climate Regime

European Union Foreign Policy and the Global Climate Regime
Author: Simon Schunz
Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Incorporated
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2014-04-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9782875741349

Ever since the first international negotiations on climate change in the early 1990s, the European Union has aspired to play a leading role in global climate politics.<BR> This book engages in a longitudinal analysis of the EU's participation in and impact on the United Nations climate regime.<BR> It provides not only comprehensive insights into the evolution of EU foreign climate policy, but also a thought-provoking audit of the potential and limits of the EU's influence in a major domain of global affairs.

Political Trust

Political Trust
Author: Sonja Zmerli
Publisher: ECPR Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2013
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1907301585

This book, by Sonja Zmerli and Marc Hooghe, presents cutting-edge empirical research on political trust as a relational concept. From a European comparative perspective it addresses a broad range of contested issues. Can political trust be conceived as a one-dimensional concept and to what extent do international population surveys warrant the culturally equivalent measurement of political trust across European societies? Is there indeed an observable general trend of declining levels of political trust? What are the individual, societal and political prerequisites of political trust and how do they translate into trustful attitudes? Why do so many Eastern European citizens still distrust their political institutions and how does the implementation of welfare state policies both enhance and benefit from political trust? The comprehensive empirical evidence presented in this book by leading scholars provides valuable insights into the relational aspects of political trust and will certainly stimulate future research. This book features: a state-of-the-art European perspective on political trust; an analysis of the most recent trends with regard to the development of political trust; a comparison of traditional and emerging democracies in Europe; the consequences of political trust on political stability and the welfare state; a counterbalance to the gloomy American picture of declining political trust levels.

Can Democracy Handle Climate Change?

Can Democracy Handle Climate Change?
Author: Daniel J. Fiorino
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2018-06-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509523995

Global climate change poses an unprecedented challenge for governments across the world. Small wonder that many experts question whether democracies have the ability to cope with the causes and long-term consequences of a changing climate. Some even argue that authoritarian regimes are better equipped to make the tough choices required to tackle the climate crisis. In this incisive book, Daniel Fiorino challenges the assumptions and evidence offered by sceptics of democracy and its capacity to handle climate change. Democracies, he explains, typically enjoy higher levels of environmental performance and produce greater innovation in technology, policy, and climate governance than autocracies. Rather than less democracy, Fiorino calls for a more accountable and responsive politics that will provide democratically-elected governments with the enhanced capacity for collective action on climate and other environmental issues.