CHAPTER 20
THE ENVIRONMENT: STEERING AWAY FROM CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL DISASTER
Overview:
Today’s ecological and environmental problems are increasingly global in nature. Since the beginning of
the new millennium, aside from the usual stories about the effects of climate change, the international media has
covered melting glaciers, the threatened extinction of polar bears, the sheen of plastic junk covering wide swaths of
the Pacific Ocean, and the impact environmental problems are having on developing nations. Popular documentaries
included Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. In a controversial report, former World Bank economist Nicholas Stern
warned that global warming could have a disastrous effect on the world’s economy. In another report, the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated categorically that global warming is real and has the potential
to severely damage different societies.
In this chapter, we discuss some political, social, and economic aspects of global environmental problems.
A brief history documents the broadening scope of those problems for states, international organizations (IOs), many
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), epistemic communities, and even some influential “personalities.” Since
the end of the Cold War, increasing interdependence and globalization have made it difficult for any single nation to
solve the problems.
Throughout the chapter, we focus on climate change because it has dominated debate about the
environment for the past decade. We discuss some of the evidence for and debates about the harms from climate
change. We explain why climate change has been difficult to manage and what some of the political dynamics have
been in international environmental negotiations in Copenhagen, Durban, and Doha. Finally, we explore a variety of
proposed global solutions to environmental problems, focusing on the roles that states, markets, technology, and
even ethical values play in reform efforts.
We present four significant theses. First, there are many conflicting interests over how to address climate
change. Second, because of the environment’s impact on national economies and security, states are facing
unprecedented global pressure to grapple with these problems. Third, market-based or one-size-fits-all solutions will
not effectively resolve most environmental issues, especially those associated with climate change. Fourth, an
alternative set of ideas about how to wed modern industrial society with preservation of the global environment and
national and sub-national cultures is beginning to emerge.
Learning Objectives:
• To explain how environmental problems have changed over the years, becoming increasingly global in nature.
• To identify what actors are involved in global environmental problems today and how the number of actors with
a stake in the issue has increased over the years.
• To explain how global environmental issues are linked to other issues in IPE.
• To assess some of the science behind global warming and some of the controversy surrounding the facts.
• To explain some of the complications in negotiating a comprehensive global approach to mitigating climate
change.
• To understand the key interests and arguments of different states regarding climate change mitigation.
• To assess the political-economic characteristics of the following potential solutions to key global environmental
problems: limiting population growth; strengthening the role of international organizations and regimes;
creating markets for the environment; developing and disseminating new technologies; and promoting
sustainable development.
Chapter Outline:
INTRODUCTION
a) The most critical global environmental problem is climate change. There is widespread agreement among
experts that evidence points to a continual rise in average world temperatures in the decades to come.
b) Effects of climate change include: rising sea levels; more extreme weather events; ocean acidification;
melting ice cover; and extinction of some animal species.
c) Many experts and government officials believe that time is running out to slow global warming enough to
head off drastic consequences.
d) International negotiations to reduce greenhouse emissions have produced weak interim agreements or
failed to advance serious, enforceable steps to slow down climate change.
e) Four significant theses in the chapter are: there are many conflicting interests over how to address climate
change; states are facing unprecedented global pressure to grapple with these problems; market–based or
one-size-fits-all solutions will not effectively resolve most environmental issues; and a new paradigm is
needed about the relationship of people to the environment.
CHRONOLOGY OF SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE EVENTS AND
AGREEMENTS
a) This section presents a short chronology of environmental reports and global negotiations between 1972
and 2012, including the Earth Summit, the Kyoto Protocol, and climate change meetings in Copenhagen
and Durban.
THE WIDENING SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS: A BRIEF HISTORY
a) Manufacturing industries in eighteenth century Europe were fueled by great quantities of inexpensive
natural resources and raw materials, the preponderance of which were located in colonies.
b) As industrialization spread through Western Europe and the United States, industrial pollution became
more of an international problem.
c) The global magnitude of environmental problems was not fully realized until the 1960s when literature on
the subject began to get broad recognition and soaring oil prices became an issue for all.
d) The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) served as an important tool to draft treaties,
provide a forum for cooperation, and create databases for scientific assessments of the environment.
e) In the 1980s, the environmental movement continued to gain recognition even British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
f) In the United States, Presidents Reagan and Bush aligned themselves with more conservative scientists
such as Julian Simon and Herman Kahn who felt that most environmentalists were overly pessimistic about
environmental issues.
g) In 1987 diplomats signed the UN-sponsored Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone
Layer which required states to reduce chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) production by one-half by 2000. CFCs,
which are used in many industrial products and processes, were targeted as the largest source contributing
to ozone depletion. The Montreal Protocol was later amended to call for a complete halt to CFC
production.
THE PROLIFERATION OF ACTORS
a) States are involved in environmental issues through the establishment of political parties and ministries. On
global issues, states usually act as “pushers” or “draggers.”
b) Some NGOs focus strictly on fundraising and organizing environmentally related projects or awareness
campaigns, while others such as Greenpeace aim to influence national and international environmental
legislation.
c) IOs have helped states to overcome the free-rider problem by promoting cooperation and assigning costs to
organization members. Garrett Hardin in his article the “Tragedy of the Commons” described the
challenges of protecting collective goods that are shared by everyone and owned by no one, in particular
the environment.
d) Businesses have also played an unexpected role in environmental activism by producing products that take
into account environmental damage.
THE SCIENCE AND DISPUTED FACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
a) The issue of global climate change and greenhouse gas emissions has gradually become the most important
issue framing international debate on the environment.
b) By some accounts, climate change has the capacity to do serious physical and economic harm to the planet
due to changes in weather patterns.
c) Some of these changes include a rising sea level, heat waves, droughts, floods, and hurricanes.
d) Al Gore and Thomas Friedman are two popular activists on the scene of the environment.
Climate Change Skeptics
a) Some skeptics argue that changes in weather patterns represent natural variability. Things such as
abnormally high volcanic activity may help to explain this.
b) Others argue that carbon dioxide is less potent than other greenhouse gases because half of it is absorbed by
oceans, green plants, and forests (the so-called carbon sinks).
c) Increasing ocean temperatures mean that it is able to absorb less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. High
levels of carbon dioxide in the ocean also lead to ocean acidification.
d) Some skeptics argue that changes in temperature have not in fact taken place and that evidence supporting
this is reliant on flawed studies. Others argue that increases in temperatures could be beneficial to the
planet.
GLOBAL MANAGEMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The Rio Summit
a) The first multilateral negotiations on the environment occurred at the Earth Summit. Delegates focused
their attention primarily on sustainable development, or ways to accomplish what seem like contradictory
objectives: generating wealth and development while preserving the environment. The United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was the most important document to come
from this meeting, as it was the predecessor to the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol
a) The third conference of the parties (COP) for the signatories of the UNFCCC was held in Kyoto, Japan in
1997. Many countries agreed to limit emissions once countries that accounted for 55 percent of the world’s
emissions had signed the Kyoto Protocol. A popular key proposal of the Kyoto Protocol was the use of
emission credits as part of a cap and trade system whereby limits on greenhouse gas emissions were to be
assigned each country based on their 1990 emissions levels.
b) Every year COPs were held to work out more details in the treaty. Controversial issues at these meetings
were carbon offsets such as carbon sinks.
c) For the next two decades, the issue of how much and when developing nations like China and India would
be bound by the climate treaty became a major source of tension between developed and developing
nations. Meanwhile, the United States and other developed nations resisted transferring any more financial
resources to developing nations as a condition for their support for an agreement.
d) In 2005 Russia finally ratified the treaty, meaning that it became enforceable, even without U.S.
ratification.
e) The United States had originally signed the Kyoto Protocol under the Clinton Administration but the
George W. Bush administration suddenly withdrew entirely from the Kyoto Treaty in 2011.
f) The Bush Administration promoted voluntary cuts in carbon emissions and relied on the market to make
environmental improvements.
Copenhagen
a) Before the Copenhagen meeting in December 2009, there was a general consensus that the world needs to
reduce its emissions by 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. Accomplishing this would require much broader
world participation from the United States and developing countries alike.
b) Table 20-1: Biggest Contributors to Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 2010 values
c) China and India have come under tremendous pressure to make emissions cuts, but the two have been
resistant to being held accountable and to making changes without assistance.
d) As with many negotiations, countries have formed alliances based on political, economic, and social
values. The “Basic” Group is made up of Brazil, South Africa, India, and China. They protested the
unfairness of limiting carbon emissions for them when developed nations had ample time in the past to
grow their economies without environmental restraints.
e) Among the developed nations there are two groups: the EU and the “Umbrella Group.” Although there is
no official list for the Umbrella Group, it included the U.S., Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and Japan.
They have been comparatively less willing to adopt measures.
f) At Copenhagen, 193 countries produced what most view as a rather weak accord that in principle begins
the process of reaching a number of binding agreements on greenhouse emissions, deforestation,
verification, and shielding poor countries from the impact of climate change.
g) At this time, Al Gore proposed the idea of a carbon tax. He argued that a cap and trade system is in
practice no different than a carbon tax system whereby the cost of greenhouse gas emissions is ultimately
passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. Gore advocated “tax what you burn, not what you
earn,” but also acknowledged that a cap and trade system in the United States would be easier to coordinate
with the policies of other countries.
Durban: SNAFU
a) The UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, at the end of 2011, ended with an agreement
to start the negotiations on a legally binding climate treaty to be decided by 2015 that would come into force
by 2020.
b) As in previous cases, many believed that the outcome of the talks produced a very weak agreement that
lacked ambition, equity, and justice.
The 18th COP at Doha: Down and Dirty
a) At the 18th COP in Doha, Qatar in December 2012, the primary goals of the meeting were to reduce global
greenhouse emissions, limit global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, and avert
catastrophic climate change. The only real progress in the meeting was to agree to deal with the issue of
emissions targets in 2014.
b) A confrontation between rich and poor states developed at Doha over extending the Green Climate Fund.
According to the developed states, they were to provide $10 billion a year for the next three years and then
$100 billion a year by 2020. The United States and Europe both argued that the financial crisis had made it
difficult to generate new funds.
c) The following factors played a role in support for or against a new climate change agreement: conflicting
state interests and values; public opposition to national and international leaders who would support a new
agreement; the financial crisis, which pressured states to postpone an agreement; skepticism, if not
disbelief, in climate change.
SOLUTIONS: A GREEN IPE?
Limit Population Growth
a. The example of China indicates that economic growth has a much stronger correlation with environmental
degradation than population.
b) Even without policies that limit population growth, the demographic transition, which accounts for
population growth rates, could slow down naturally as people’s income and standard of living increase.
c) If slowing population growth rates are accompanied by an increase in income, population control alone will
not solve most environmental problems and may even exacerbate them.
New Technology
a) Since global warming has become the number one threat to the environment, renewable energy has become
a trendy area of technological innovation.
b) Some popular investment areas have become biofuels, hybrid vehicles, and solar and wind energy.
c) Critics have also questioned the morality of using edible products in the production of energy when so
many people in the world go hungry.
d) Appropriate technology has long been an issue for the developing world. Many of the technologies
currently being developed do not address the environmental needs of LDCs.
e) Carbon sinks, a very non-technologically sophisticated solution, are viewed as one of the most viable and
effective solutions to global warming.
Box: A Hybrid Solution: MicroEnergy Credits
a) MicroEnergy Credits (MEC), a Seattle based “social enterprise,” addresses a number of issues confronting
LDCs by facilitating partnerships between businesses and NGOs, while capitalizing on agreements
negotiated by IOs and states.
b) By promoting clean technology, MEC has been able to reduce carbon outputs in LDCs and then sell these
energy savings as carbon credits on the international market.
c) Microfinance clients are able to purchase a piece of equipment that permits them to conduct business in a
more energy efficient way and/or allows the client to sell clean energy to others in the vicinity.
d) EcoSecurities then purchases these credits from MEC and securitizes them for the carbon market, of which
some of the revenues are returned to the bank.
Markets for the Environment
a) Markets have been the most popular solution to the environment thus far. Given the limited debate on the
effectiveness of cap and trade, it seems likely that any successor to the Kyoto treaty will continue to
employ this system.
b) Some big U.S. companies such as Wal-Mart and Coca Cola have actually led the way in greening their
business practices. “Green products” and “fair trade” items have in fact become big business.
c) Markets are not an end all solution because commodifying environmental problems makes them subject to
the whims of the economy.
d) The emergence of businesses as major actors in the environment is consistent with the IPE economic liberal
perspective. However, mercantilists tend to believe that the state must play a more aggressive role in
addressing environmental problems by outlawing environmentally damaging activities and taxing goods
that are known to cause harm to the environment.
More National and Global Agreements: Yet Another New World Order
a) The trend in finding solutions for the environment has been toward bestowing more authority on IOs, but
this does not represent a final solution.
b) The lack of success in establishing an effective treaty on the environment has led many to question the use
of IOs as the main source of change.
c) A number of scientists in Germany and experts elsewhere have put forward the argument that it is time to
move away from finding a successor to Kyoto and focus on other ways to deal with climate change.
CONCLUSION: PLAN FOR A WORLD WHEN THERE IS NO GOING BACK
a) With accelerated industrialization and globalization in the 1980s, environmental problems became more
global and interconnected with development, energy, and security. Cooperative efforts to solve problems
have largely been unsuccessful due to the unwillingness of states to sacrifice domestic interests. Likewise
confrontational relations between the North and South have also prevented cooperation.
b) In the 1990s scientific data pointed to global warming as a scientific fact. Globalization led to increased
industrial production and world consumption and still more emissions into the atmosphere.
c) Many believe a perfect storm of events threatens the planet and humankind.
d) The current financial crisis has made addressing these issues all the more difficult and hard to adjust to
socially.
e) IOs have played an important role in offering solutions or helping coordinate policy, but their overall
effectiveness remains limited.
f) Markets alone cannot solve the vast array of interrelated environmental problems.
g) It is politically easier to deny something that we do not want to believe could happen than to care about it
and cooperate to find ways to deal with it. And yet as in the case of the tragedy of the commons, the
situation is made worse by the freedom to do so.
Key Terms:
• Climate change
• United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
• Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)
• Ozone depletion
• Montreal Protocol
• Tragedy of the Commons
• Collective goods
• Carbon sinks
• Earth Summit
• Sustainable development
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• Kyoto Protocol
• Emissions credits
• Cap and trade
• Carbon tax
• Demographic transition
Teaching Tips:
• This chapter intermingles three theories with case studies and solutions, in a somewhat chronological order. If
time is limited (as it is likely to be at the end of the term), it may be necessary to choose selectively which of
these sections to cover and in what depth.
• The tragedy of the commons is the key to analyzing many environmental problems. The prisoner’s dilemma
(and the problems of getting cooperation and avoiding defection) can also be useful when discussing climate
change solutions that end the chapter.
• We chose the topic of climate change as the main focus of this chapter because it is the broadest and most
pertinent issue surrounding the environment today. Despite this, many other environmental issues remain
relevant and merit some discussion. You should feel free to add other examples such as deforestation, mining,
and depletion of ocean fisheries, acid rain, and waste dumping in the ocean. Ask students to supply other
examples. A current issue that has attracted considerable interest by some NGOs is electronic waste. This issue
might resonate with students on a personal level and open up some lively discussion. You can have students
watch a 20–minute documentary before class titled “Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground” (the URL is
www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804).
• The discussion of solutions is very speculative, but exciting. Ask students whether a new IPE of the
environment is needed—a new global order. Sustainable development is being widely discussed these days—
it is on the World Bank’s development agenda, for example—and it therefore deserves special attention if time
allows. It remains a very interesting topic for students.
• A good class exercise is to form small groups and engage in a simulation of negotiations to reach a treaty to
replace the Kyoto Protocol. Assign the groups to represent different states, IOs, and NGOs, and their views on a
particular aspect of this issue.
• After reading the box on MicroEnergy Credits at the end of the chapter, discuss the extent to which non–
technological innovation plays a role in solving environmental problems. What main role do people like Sting,
Bono, Al Gore, and others contribute to solving this problem? In what ways do they also complicate the issue?
Sample Essay-Discussion Questions:
1. Outline the “tragedy of the commons.” In what ways does this concept contribute to our understanding of
environmental problems?
2. The authors assert that environmental problems have become increasingly global in scope. What factors—
political, economic, social—contributed most to this trend? Explain. (Note: the category “economic” includes
not only items such as trade and finance but also the role of knowledge and technology.)
3. Examine the issue of climate change in terms of:
a) the sources of the problem—be they political, economic, and social
b) the major actors and their interests
c) potential solutions in light of the tension between economic growth and sustainable development.
4. After having read the entire chapter, discuss some of the possible solutions mentioned at the end of it. Do you
agree or disagree with any of them in particular? Explain why. What other things would you suggest that we
need in order to mitigate climate change?
5. Sustainable development is a widely held goal. What balance between states and markets is inherent in policies
to achieve sustainable development? Which of the IPE perspectives is most closely associated with the policies
that sustainable development would require? Explain.
Sample Examination Questions:
1. Which of the following is NOT recognized in the text as being an early event in the environmentalist
movement?
d) Rio, Brazil.
3. Which protocol is aimed primarily at stopping ozone depletion?
a) Stockholm
4. According to Sprintz and Vaahtoranta, when it comes to support for international environmental legislation, the
United States tends to be a
d) pusher.
5. Which IO has been the most active when it comes to dealing with environmental problems and policies?
a) the World Trade Organization
6. Global environmental problems are created in part because it is in each nation’s interest to pollute the air and
seas, i.e., businesses in each nation profit from damaging environmental practices, while environmental costs
are shared globally. Therefore, in many situations, it is in a nation’s rational self-interest to pollute. This
d) the greenhouse effect.
7. This environmental alliance is made up of Brazil, South Africa, China, and India.
d) the Gang of 4
8. “Cap and trade” can best be described as which of the following?
d) A proposal first introduced by the Carter administration.
9. Which country, by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, brought the convention into force?
10. Which of the following statements is NOT an accurate characterization of a U.S. position towards climate
change negotiations since 1997?
a) The United States is the only major industrialized developed nation to not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
11. Which of the following is NOT considered to be an effect of global warming?
d) drought
12. Critics of policies aimed at addressing global warming have offered all of the following arguments EXCEPT:
a) global warming is not actually taking place.
13. This U.S. president signed the Kyoto Protocol and then was unable to have it ratified by the U.S. Senate:
a) George H.W. Bush
14. All of the following goals were outlined at the Copenhagen conference EXCEPT:
a) developed countries will reduce emissions levels individually or jointly based on pledges made before the
conference.
15. Of the following activists, who has advocated most for a “tax what you burn, not what you earn” as an
alternative to cap and trade?
a) Thomas Friedman