Global Warming Gridlock
Creating More Effective Strategies for Protecting the Planet

Twenty years of talks have done little to slow global warming. This book explains why and offers an alternative strategy.

David G. Victor (Author)

9780521865012, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 March 2011

392 pages, 15 b/w illus. 3 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.75 kg

'Global Warming Gridlock brings together a wealth of comprehensive analysis, which has in its crosshairs the conventional wisdom that has straitjacketed both national and international efforts at dealing with climate change … In a landscape littered with a multitude of commentary on what has gone wrong after two decades of international efforts to address climate change, and no shortage of proposals on how to rectify this, Victor's work is a standout contribution: melding the economics and politics, moving between the domestic and international, and robustly challenging assumptions about how we might move towards a low-carbon future.' Nick Chan, e-International Relations (e-ir.info/)

Global warming is one of today's greatest challenges. The science of climate change leaves no doubt that policies to cut emissions are overdue. Yet, after twenty years of international talks and treaties, the world is now in gridlock about how best to do this. David G. Victor argues that such gridlock has arisen because international talks have drifted away from the reality of what countries are willing and able to implement at home. Most of the lessons that policy makers have drawn from the history of other international environmental problems won't actually work on the problem of global warming. Victor argues that a radical rethinking of global warming policy is required and shows how to make international law on global warming more effective. This book provides a roadmap to a lower carbon future based on encouraging bottom-up initiatives at national, regional and global levels, leveraging national self-interest rather than wishful thinking.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface and acknowledgements
Hard truths on global warming: a roadmap to reading this book
Part I. Setting the Scene: 1. Introduction and overview
2. Why global warming is such a difficult problem to solve
Part II. The Three Dimensions to Climate Policy Strategy: 3. Regulating emissions part 1: the enthusiastic countries
4. Regulating emissions part 2: engaging reluctant developing countries
5. Promoting technological innovation
6. Preparing for a changing climate: adaptation, geoengineering and triage
Part III. Putting it All Together: 7. Explaining diplomatic gridlock: what went wrong?
8. A new strategy
9. Climate change and world order: implications for the UN, government, industry and nature
Bibliography
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Climate change [RNPG], Environmental economics [KCN], International economics [KCL], International relations [JPS]