The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change was widely heralded as a turning-point for international action on global warming. While many states now rhetorically support such initiatives, producing tangible policies on the environment has proven difficult to achieve. The articles in this reading list examine the many recent attempts by governments and international organizations to address environmental challenges, from global warming to resource security and preserving biodiversity.
Discussion questions:
a) How significant is EU climate policy?
b) To what extent is climate policy becoming increasingly politicized?
Discussion questions:
a) To what extent do we need to adopt a blue paradigm?
b) Are we likely to see a revolution in global ocean politics?
Discussion questions:
a) How is the climate crisis provoking new ways of thinking about military operations?
b) What are the geopolitical and ethical implications of undertaking military operations with lower carbon emissions?
Discussion questions:
a) The climate (in)justice claims of the most vulnerable are the most deserving'. Do you agree?
b) How does climate change expose limitations in the conventional accounts of justice and international order?
Discussion questions:
a) What lessons does regional cooperation around the conservation of the Amazon rainforest provide for global conservation efforts?
b) To what extent is regional cooperation around ecosystem conversation driven by the sovereign interests of nation-states?
Discussion questions:
a) How environmentally damaging is the nuclear fuel supply chain?
b) Does the nuclear fuel chain represent a further example of colonial oppression?
Discussion questions:
a) How significant is the climate justice movement?
b) Is there a need for a decolonial approach to climate governance?
Discussion questions:
a) What lessons can be derived from bottom-up environmental peacebuilding processes such as 'tara bandu' for the wider study and practice of environmental peacebuilding?
b) What are the risks of international and state institutions' involvement in local environmental peacebuilding processes?
Discussion questions:
a) What are the challenges to the Paris Agreement?
b) Can international cooperation prevent climate change?
Discussion questions:
a) Does the international community have a responsibility to protect biodiversity?
b) Is conservation a new form of western imperialism?
Discussion questions:
a) How are changes in the relative balance of power affecting climate politics?
b) Is a western narrative dominating the climate change agenda?
Discussion questions:
a) Is the problem with climate change that it requires long term commitments that have immediate negative economic consequences?
b) Is there a need to redefine what we understand as an economic benefit?
Discussion questions:
a) To what extent should the UN have a role in managing climate change?
b) How might the innovation literature help us understand developments in the diffusion of international environmental affairs?
Snapshot from history
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. It is widely acknowledged as a significant turning point in the history of international environmental policy and resulted in the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In 1972 Wayland Kennet, a Labour Party politician and government minister who helped to found the UK Department of the Environment, gave a speech at Chatham House which looked ahead to the key agenda items of the conference.
Discussion questions:
a) To what extent should the UN have a role in managing climate change?
b) Is the United Nations the only institution capable of coordinating international environmental policy?
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