Confronting Climate Change
Risks, Implications and Responses

This book takes a firm grip on the question of climate change, sets it in perspective and makes positive recommendations for the way ahead for the world community.

Irving M. Mintzer (Edited by)

9780521421096, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 June 1992

400 pages, 70 b/w illus. 25 tables
29.9 x 21.2 x 2 cm, 1.065 kg

'This book is the story of the backstairs arm-twisting, stone walling and finally, in 1992, the signing of the Climate Change Convention at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It is a warts-and-all version, written by diplomats, scientists and lobbyists.' Fred Pearce, New Scientist

Confronting Climate Change is a guide to the risks, dilemmas, and opportunities of the emerging political era, in which the impacts of a global warming could affect all regional, public and even individual decisions. Written by a renowned group of scientists, political analysts and economists, all with direct experience in climate change related deliberations, Confronting Climate Change is a survey of the best available answers to three vital questions: What do we know so far about the foreseeable dangers of climate change? How reliable is our knowledge? What are the most rewarding ways to respond? The book begins by exploring the key linkages and feedbacks that connect the risks of rapid climate change to other important environmental, economic and political problems of our time. Recognizing persistent uncertainties in the scientific understanding of climate change, the book draws attention to those areas of research which may reveal surprises which could change the sense of political urgency surrounding the climate problem - as did the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole. It explores the geological record of climate change over the Earth's history, seeking a better understanding of how the climate has changed rapidly in countries while minimizing the long-term environmental damages which otherwise will result from continuing the current patterns of energy supply and use. The book is written to cross discipline boundaries, so that policy makers, economists, scientists, risk assessors, environmentalists and development advocates may understand each other's concerns. It shows how the international debate on managing the risks of rapid climate change may be re-shaped for the benfit of people in every nation on the planet.

1. Living in a warming world
Part I. The Science of Climate Change: 2. Linkages between global warming, ozone depletion, acid deposition, and other aspects of global environmental change
3. Climate sensitivity, climate feedbacks and policy implications
4. Lessons from the ice cores: rapid climate changes during the last 160,000 years
5. Changes in climates of the past: lessons for the future
6. Indices and indicators of climate change: issues of detection, validation and climate sensitivity
Part II. Impacts of Climate Change: 7. Future sea level rise: environmental and socio-political considerations
8. Effects of climate change on food production
9. Effects of climate change on shared fresh water resources
10. Effects of climate change on weather-related disasters
11. The effect of changing climate on population
Part III. Energy Use and Technology: 12. The energy predicament in perspective
13. Electricity: technological opportunities and management challenges to achieving a low-emissions future
14. Transportation in developing nations: managing the institutional and technological transition to a low-emissions future
Part IV. Economics and the Role of Institutions: 15. The economics of near-term reductions in greenhouse gases
16. 'Wait and see' versus 'No regrets': comparing the costs of economic strategies
17. International organizations in a warming world: building a global climate regime
18. Modifying the mandate of existing institutions: NGOs
19. Modifying the mandate of existing institutions: corporations
20. International trade, technology transfer, and climate change
Part V. Equity Considerations and Future Negotiations: 21. Sharing the burden
22. Climate negotiations: the North South perspective
23. Shaping institutions to build a new partnership: lessons from the past and a vision for the future.

Subject Areas: Climate change [RNPG]