Governance traps in climate change politics

Re‐framing the debate in terms of responsibilities and rights

Bibliographic Data

ID12929671
AuthorsPeter Newell (0000-0002-5371-7668, University of Sussex), Harriet Bulkeley (0000-0001-9912-5687, Durham University), Karen Turner (0000-0001-5278-6779, University of Strathclyde), Christopher Shaw (0000-0001-9432-6850, University of Oxford, corresponding author), Simon Caney (0000-0002-6316-231X, University of Oxford), Elizabeth Shove (0000-0002-4792-5479, Lancaster University), Nick F Pidgeon (0000-0002-8991-0398, Cardiff University)
Year2015
Volume6
Issue6
Pages535-540
Publication date2015-09-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1757-7780 • E-ISSN: 1757-7799
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/wcc.356
OpenAlexW1819855557
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited10

There is a strong sense of malaise surrounding climate politics today. This has been created at least in part by factors such as the chasm between the scale of action required and the adequacy of current political commitments, stalemate in global negotiations, the low price of carbon, and a growing sense of indifference among the publics of some developed countries about the threat posed by climate change. Within the policy community these issues are generally treated as different problems each to be overcome on their own terms. Yet, we argue, suggested solutions to these problems hold much in common—namely a focus on identifying agency, whether the capacity of institutions to act or the behavior of individuals. What is often missing from such accounts of climate politics is a recognition that the problems of how agency is attributed, what we might term governance traps , are structural in nature. Governing climate change therefore requires that we study the conditions through which these challenges arise and which in turn serve to frame agency in particular ways. We suggest that examining the ways in which notions of responsibilities and rights are currently being framed within climate politics provides one way into these dynamics. This opens up the critical questions that need to be addressed ahead of the critical Conference of the Parties meeting in Paris in November 2015. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:535–540. doi: 10.1002/wcc.356 This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

Agency (philosophy · Climate change · Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental ethics · Framing (construction · Law and economics · Negotiation · Political economy · Political economy of climate change · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Stalemate · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Law · Public Administration · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access