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Earth's climate is in crisis. Climate governance has failed. Pathologies of Climate Governance diagnoses climate governance as if it were a sick patient, uncovering the fundamental factors causing the worsening climate crisis. It distils decades of global climate negotiations to reveal the features of international relations that are impeding climate action, and it identifies political obstacles to climate governance across a variety of countries in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The psychosocial aspects of climate change are explored to show how human nature, overconsumption, and global capitalism conspire to stymy climate action. Remedies are suggested for how to overcome hurdles to effective climate governance internationally and nationally, with ideas provided for individuals to help them align their own interests with those of the global environment. Covering all of the major recent events in climate politics and governance, this is an accessible book for concerned readers who want to understand the climate crisis.
Acknowledgements
List of figures and tables
List of abbreviations and acronyms
Part I. Problems:
1. Dysfunction in climate governance
2. The worsening climate crisis
Part II. Pathologies:
3. Pathologies of international relations
4. Pathologies of national politics in the United States and China
5. Pathologies of national politics in the Global North
6. Pathologies of national politics in the Global South
7. Pathologies of human nature
Part III. Prescriptions:
8. Reconsidering international, national and human governance
9. Prescriptions for governing climate change
10. Policies and prospects for climate governance
Conclusion
References
Index
Paul G. Harris has written or edited 25 books on global environmental and climate change politics, policy, and ethics, including: What's Wrong with Climate Politics and How to Fix It (Polity Press, 2013), the Routledge Handbook of Global Environmental Politics (Routledge, 2014), Global Ethics and Climate Change (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), and Climate Change and Ocean Governance (Cambridge, 2019). He is the Chair Professor of Global and Environmental Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong and a Senior Research Fellow in the Earth System Governance global research alliance.
"Paul Harris provides an excellent account of the major structural, political and psychosocial causes of the climate crisis and the failures of climate governance – but ends positively with a shopping list of plausible policy solutions. Very accessible, often provocative, sometimes depressing, but always engaging, this should be read by everyone interested in climate politics."
– Neil Carter, University of York
"In this book, Paul Harris provides a thought-provoking analysis of the instincts and behaviours that governance systems and societies will need to confront if they are to succeed in controlling the most serious impacts of climate change. Its accessible writing style and clear lines of argumentation will make it a useful resource for academics, decision-makers and students of the politics of climate change."
– Ian Bailey, University of Plymouth
