SP20300 Lecture 6
The Politics of Climate Change
-meaning of politics
-politics of climate change, how the problem has been conceptualised and what should be the focus?
-pathways to solving the climate crisis
politics Politics: Who gets What, When and How (Lasswell, 1936)
-poliical science - the study of changes in the distribution of value patterns in
society; the distribution depends on power
-ideological values
-the conventional understandings depends on power
-power: the ability to produce intended effects on other people
￫different types/faces of power: structural, instrumental. + discursive
hat
Implications for climate change?
conceptualising climate -focus: mitigation (decarbonisation)
politics -climate change is also a complex problem, including issues of adaptation
-challenges: issues of scale amd time horizon
-GHG is at a global level, leading to the issues of externalities
-intergenerational justice -- actions of today affect the future
-changes our generation needs to make, LT impacts
-central dilemma, global collective action
-free riding
-distributive conflict within countries?
-conflicts in industrialised countries
-emphasis on second dilemma, shift from the global collective action to
dynamics of climate politics looking at different groups
-adjust the thinking
Aklin & Midenberg (2020): climate politics is characterised as a renegotation of
the institutions that structure economic + social activity within each economy,
between winners and losers of reforms
existential politics of -model focused on asset revaluations (Colgan, Green & Hale 2020)
climate change -consisting of two ideal groups with divergent interests in climate
politics
-climate-forcing asset (CFA) - fossil fuel industry
climate-vulnerable asset (CVA) - coastal tourism
-predetermined invested interests in certain types of assets
-actors have limited exit options to change their assets, so their asset portfolio
will determine their economic interests
-climate politics is a distributional problem, shaped by a contest between the
asset holders who influence policies to defend their assets
-those have more valuable assets are likely to have more power
-as climate change impacts become more salient
￫ climate politics is moving from normal distributional politics over ‘who gets
what’ towards existential politics
-a contest over whose way of life gets to survive
dynamics of climate -typology of distributional politics (Colgan et al. 2020)
The Politics of Climate Change
-meaning of politics
-politics of climate change, how the problem has been conceptualised and what should be the focus?
-pathways to solving the climate crisis
politics Politics: Who gets What, When and How (Lasswell, 1936)
-poliical science - the study of changes in the distribution of value patterns in
society; the distribution depends on power
-ideological values
-the conventional understandings depends on power
-power: the ability to produce intended effects on other people
￫different types/faces of power: structural, instrumental. + discursive
hat
Implications for climate change?
conceptualising climate -focus: mitigation (decarbonisation)
politics -climate change is also a complex problem, including issues of adaptation
-challenges: issues of scale amd time horizon
-GHG is at a global level, leading to the issues of externalities
-intergenerational justice -- actions of today affect the future
-changes our generation needs to make, LT impacts
-central dilemma, global collective action
-free riding
-distributive conflict within countries?
-conflicts in industrialised countries
-emphasis on second dilemma, shift from the global collective action to
dynamics of climate politics looking at different groups
-adjust the thinking
Aklin & Midenberg (2020): climate politics is characterised as a renegotation of
the institutions that structure economic + social activity within each economy,
between winners and losers of reforms
existential politics of -model focused on asset revaluations (Colgan, Green & Hale 2020)
climate change -consisting of two ideal groups with divergent interests in climate
politics
-climate-forcing asset (CFA) - fossil fuel industry
climate-vulnerable asset (CVA) - coastal tourism
-predetermined invested interests in certain types of assets
-actors have limited exit options to change their assets, so their asset portfolio
will determine their economic interests
-climate politics is a distributional problem, shaped by a contest between the
asset holders who influence policies to defend their assets
-those have more valuable assets are likely to have more power
-as climate change impacts become more salient
￫ climate politics is moving from normal distributional politics over ‘who gets
what’ towards existential politics
-a contest over whose way of life gets to survive
dynamics of climate -typology of distributional politics (Colgan et al. 2020)
