The gap is wide between the implications of climate science and the achievements of climate policy. Natural sciences tell us with increasing certainty that climate change is real, dangerous, and solvable; social sciences report that key constituencies largely support action. But current and planned policy remains weak and will allow a long-term increase in temperature of 3.6°C (1). How can we address the gap between science and policy? From the political successes of climate policy leaders, we identify key strategies for building winning coalitions for decarbonization of domestic economies. Green industrial policy provides direct incentives for growth of green industries, which builds political support for carbon regulation.

An examination of how a transnational coalition of firms and NGOs influenced the emergence of emissions trading as a central component of global climate governance. Over the past decade, carbon trading has emerged as the industrialized world's primary policy response to global climate change despite considerable controversy. With carbon markets worth $144 billion in 2009, carbon trading represents the largest manifestation of the trend toward market-based environmental governance. In Carbon Coalitions, Jonas Meckling presents the first comprehensive study on the rise of carbon trading and the role business played in making this policy instrument a central pillar of global climate governance. Meckling explains how a transnational coalition of firms and a few market-oriented environmental groups actively promoted international emissions trading as a compromise policy solution in a situation of political stalemate. The coalition sidelined not only environmental groups that favored taxation and command-and-control regulation but also business interests that rejected any emissions controls. Considering the sources of business influence, Meckling emphasizes the importance of political opportunities (policy crises and norms), coalition resources (funding and legitimacy,) and political strategy (mobilizing state allies and multilevel advocacy). Meckling presents three case studies that represent milestones in the rise of carbon trading: the internationalization of emissions trading in the Kyoto Protocol (1989–2000); the creation of the EU Emissions Trading System (1998–2008); and the reemergence of emissions trading on the U.S. policy agenda (2001–2009). These cases and the theoretical framework that Meckling develops for understanding the influence of transnational business coalitions offer critical insights into the role of business in the emergence of market-based global environmental governance.

This edited volume provides both a broad overview of cooperation patterns in the UNFCCC climate change negotiations and an in-depth analysis of specific coalitions and their relations. Over the course of three parts, this book maps out and takes stock of patterns of cooperation in the climate change negotiations since their inception in 1995. In Part I, the authors focus on the evolution of coalitions over time, examining why these emerged and how they function. Part II drills deeper into a set of coalitions, particularly "new" political groups that have emerged in the last rounds of negotiations around the Copenhagen Accord and the Paris Agreement. Finally, Part III explores common themes and open questions in coalition research, and provides a comprehensive overview of coalitions in the climate change negotiations. By taking a broad approach to the study of coalitions in the climate change negotiations, this volume is an essential reference source for researchers, students, and negotiators with an interest in the dynamics of climate negotiations.

Explores how we should react to the political dilemmas of adapting the global economy to confront climate change.

In the face of global crisis and in response to California's leadership in the field of global warming, climate justice advocates and organizations in California are writing a new chapter in the struggle for social justice. We are living at a critical moment in planetary evolution. After four hundred generations, the period of the Earth's stable climate is ending. The evidence of this change is now widely documented: melting polar ice caps, sea level rise, extreme weather events and widespread flooding and drought. The runaway economy itself is in crisis, driven by the myopic short-term goals of the world's largest corporations in pursuit of private profit. The majority of the world's people are living in poverty, being uprooted and forced away from the land and into the cities in search of livelihoods. Already at risk, these populations are placed in greater danger by the current global climate crises. In response, a global climate justice movement is emerging, demanding fairness in the distribution of the benefits and burdens of climate change processes. This book presents the highlights of what the San Francisco Bay Area Six Big Wins Coalition accomplished and a brief summary of our planning efforts. After many letter writing campaigns, power analyses, turn-out sessions for public meetings, a highlight of the process came when we introduced the Equity, Environment and Jobs scenario into the regional planning debate. This was a major accomplishment. Social justice advocates had never before created a unified transportation and land use plan for achieving equity throughout the nine-county region. Our scenario called for greater investment in operating local transit services, increased allocation of affordable housing in transit-connected suburban communities of opportunity, and a regional grant program creating incentives for local cities to zone for affordable housing and implement protections against displacement. This book presents a rare opportunity to see and understand how grassroots groups from historically disenfranchised communities perceived the challenges of California Assembly Bill 32 and Senate Bill 375 and how they responded and rose to the challenges, bringing about breakthroughs in public policy. The work undertaken by individuals and groups on the front lines, over a three-year period is recounted in their own voices-with passion and enthusiasm, with the knowledge and authority of communities that have been working collaboratively on a range of issues for a long time.

"In many ways, everything we once knew about energy resources and technologies has been impacted by: the longstanding scientific consensus on climate change and related support for renewable energy; the affordability of extraction of unconventional fuels; increasing demand for energy resources by middle- and low-income nations; new regional and global stakeholders; fossil fuel discoveries and emerging renewable technologies; awareness of (trans)local politics; and rising interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the need for energy justice. Research on these and related topics now appears frequently in social science academic journals-in broad-based journals, such as International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and Review of International Political Economy, as well as those focused specifically on energy (e.g., Energy Research & Social Science and Energy Policy), the environment (Global Environmental Politics), natural resources (Resources Policy), and extractive industries (Extractive Industries and Society). The Oxford Handbook of Energy Politics synthesizes and aggregates this substantively diverse literature to provide insights into, and a foundation for teaching and research on, critical energy issues primarily in the areas of international relations and comparative politics. Its primary goals are to further develop the energy politics scholarship and community, and generate sophisticated new work that will benefit a variety of scholars working on energy issues"--

Shows that economic concerns about jobs, costs, and consumption, rather than climate change, are likely to drive energy transition in developing countries.

Climate change governance is in a state of enormous flux. New and more dynamic forms of governing are appearing around the international climate regime centred on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They appear to be emerging spontaneously from the bottom up, producing a more dispersed pattern of governing, which Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom famously described as 'polycentric'. This book brings together contributions from some of the world's foremost experts to provide the first systematic test of the ability of polycentric thinking to explain and enhance societal attempts to govern climate change. It is ideal for researchers in public policy, international relations, environmental science, environmental management, politics, law and public administration. It will also be useful on advanced courses in climate policy and governance, and for practitioners seeking incisive summaries of developments in particular sub-areas and sectors. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

A comparative examination of domestic climate politics that offers a theory for cross-national differences in domestic climate policymaking. Climate change threatens the planet, and yet policy responses have varied widely across nations. Some countries have undertaken ambitious programs to stave off climate disaster, others have done little, and still others have passed policies that were later rolled back. In this book, Matto Mildenberger opens the “black box” of domestic climate politics, examining policy making trajectories in several countries and offering a theoretical explanation for national differences in the climate policy process. Mildenberger introduces the concept of double representation—when carbon polluters enjoy political representation on both the left (through industrial unions fearful of job loss) and the right (through industrial business associations fighting policy costs)—and argues that different climate policy approaches can be explained by the interaction of climate policy preferences and domestic institutions. He illustrates his theory with detailed histories of climate politics in Norway, the United States, and Australia, along with briefer discussions of policies in in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. He shows that Norway systematically shielded politically connected industrial polluters from costs beginning with its pioneering carbon tax; the United States, after the failure of carbon reduction legislation, finally acted on climate reform through a series of Obama administration executive actions; and Australia's Labor and Green parties enacted an emissions trading scheme, which was subsequently repealed by a conservative Liberal party government. Ultimately, Mildenberger argues for the importance of political considerations in understanding the climate policymaking process and discusses possible future policy directions.