Contemporary Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer

✍ Scribed by Mike Hulme (editor)

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 280
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Contemporary Climate Change Debates is an innovative new textbook which tackles some of the difficult questions raised by climate change. For the complex policy challenges surrounding climate migration, adaptation and resilience, structured debates become effective learning devices for students. This book is organised around 15 important questions, and is split into four parts: What do we need to know? What should we do? On what grounds should we base our actions? Who should be the agents of change? Each debate is addressed by pairs of one or two leading or emerging academics who present opposing viewpoints. Through this format the book is designed to introduce students of climate change to different arguments prompted by these questions, and also provides a unique opportunity for them to engage in critical thinking and debate amongst themselves. Each chapter concludes with suggestions for further reading and with discussion questions for use in student classes. Drawing upon the sciences, social sciences and humanities to debate these ethical, cultural, legal, social, economic, technological and political roadblocks, Contemporary Debates on Climate Change is essential reading for all students of climate change, as well as those studying environmental policy and politics and sustainable development more broadly.

✦ Table of Contents

Dedication
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
List of contributors
List of abbreviations
Glossary
Introduction: Why and how to debate climate change
1 Is climate change the most important challenge of our times?
YES: Because climate change is changing everything • Sarah E. Cornell
NO: Because we cannot address climate change without addressing inequality • Aarti Gupta
Part I: What do we need to know?
2 Is the concept of ‘tipping point’ helpful for describing and communicating possible climate futures?
YES: It draws attention to the possibility of inadequate response to non-incremental change • Michel Crucifix
NO: It misleads as to the nature of climate change • James Annan
3 Should individual extreme weather events be attributed to human agency?
YES: Attribution provides a realistic view of the impacts of climate change and can improve local decision-making and planning • Friederike E.L. Otto
NO: Attributing individual extreme events to anthropogenic factors is not as useful as you might think • Greg Lusk
4 Does climate change drive violence, conflict and human migration?
YES: Historically it does, over large scales of time and space • David D. Zhang and Qing Pei
NO: Other social, economic and political factors are nearly always more important • Christiane Fröhlich and Tobias Ide
5 Can the social cost of carbon be calculated?
YES: The social cost of carbon is a simple and practical tool • Reyer Gerlagh and Roweno Heijmans
NO: There are fundamental problems with cost-benefit analysis when applied to climate change • Kozo Torasan Mayumi
Part II: What should we do?
6 Are carbon markets the best way to address climate change?
YES: Markets are flexible, efficient and politically feasible • Misato Sato and Timothy Laing
NO: Carbon markets are theoretically flawed and practically ineffective • Mike Hulme
7 Should future investments in energy technology be limited exclusively to renewables?
YES: Accelerating energy transformation requires a commitment to ending fossil fuel investments • Jennie C. Stephens
NO: A diverse clean energy portfolio delivers wider social and economic benefits • Gregory Nemet
8 Is it necessary to research solar climate engineering as a possible backstop technology?
YES: Research gives society an opportunity to act responsibly • Jane C.S. Long
NO: Because it perpetuates the dangerous illusion that a technological fix for climate change is possible • Rose Cairns
PART IIIOn what grounds should we base our actions?
9 Is emphasising consensus in climate science helpful for policymaking?
YES: Because closing the consensus gap removes a roadblock to policy progress • John Cook
NO: Because consensus is narrow and human values are more important for policymaking • Warren Pearce
10 Do rich people rather than rich countries bear the greatest responsibility for climate change?
YES: Rich people ought to behave responsibly (before it’s too late) • Paul G. Harris
NO: Primary responsibility must rest with states and institutional actors • Kenneth Shockley
11 Is climate change a human rights violation?
YES: Because it undermines the right to life, to subsistence and to health • Catriona McKinnon
NO: Climate change needs a relational, embodied and unbounded perspective • Marie-Catherine Petersmann
Part IV: Who should be the agents of change?
12 Does successful emissions reduction lie in the hands of non-state rather than state actors?
YES: Because it requires commitments by all actors, private and public • Liliana B. Andonova
NO: Successful emissions reduction requires a system-level response that states are best placed to facilitate • Kim Coetzee
13 Is legal adjudication essential for enforcing ambitious climate change policies?
YES: Because of the inevitability and necessity of legal disputes about climate change • Eloise Scotford
NO: Judges should remain judges and should not become scientists or policymakers • Marjan Peeters and Ellen Vos
14 Does the ‘Chinese model’ of environmental governance demonstrate to the world how to govern the climate?
YES: It offers a centralised governance model with a command-and-control approach • Tianbao Qin and Meng Zhang
NO: The Chinese experience is difficult to replicate by other countries • Lei Liu and Pu Wang
15 Are social media making constructive climate policymaking harder?
YES: Social media fragment, polarise and worsen climate change communication • Mike S. Schäfer
NO: They allow new, radical voices into the debate, thereby facilitating democratic forms of policymaking • Peter North
Index