Power Failure

Author: Philip Chubb
Publisher: Black Inc.
ISBN: 1922231517
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
The inside story of a wicked problem … What should Australia do about climate change? A succession of leaders has tried to answer this question – and come unstuck. Politicians and public servants call it a “wicked” problem – one highly resistant to solution – and many approaches have been developed and discarded by the major parties. Some believe Australia’s dependence on coal makes effective action impossible. In this book, award-winning journalist Philip Chubb examines the tenacity of fossil-fuel interests and their allies in business, politics and the media when their power is challenged. He reveals and analyses the political strategies of prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard as they tried to overcome the obstacles created by Australia’s carbon-intensive economy. This is a dramatic study of leadership replete with new revelations. Using more than 75 interviews with key figures (including Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan, Greg Combet and Penny Wong), freedom-of-information requests and good old-fashioned leaks, Chubb gives a persuasive account of success and failure in climate policy, and of the strategies that leaders must use in future.

The Political Economy of Coal

Author: Michael Jakob
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000551598
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
This volume provides an overview of the political economy of coal in diverse country contexts. Coal is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally, accounting for about 40 percent of energy-related CO2 emissions. Continued construction of coal-fired power plants could make the climate targets of the Paris Agreement infeasible to achieve. In spite of sharply declining costs for renewable energy sources, many countries still heavily rely on coal to meet their energy demand. The predominance of coal can only be adequately understood in light of the political factors that determine energy policy formulation. To this end, this edited volume assembles a wide variety of case studies exploring the political economy of coal for across the globe. These includes industrial and developing nations, coal importers and exporters as well as countries that are either substantial coal users, are just beginning to ramp up their capacities, or have already initiated a coal phase-out. Importantly, all case studies are structured along a unifying framework that focuses on the central actors driving energy policy formulation, their main objectives as well as the context that determines to what extent they can influence policy making. This large set of comparable studies will permit drawing conclusions regarding key similarities as well as differences driving coal use in different countries. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy, climate change, resource management, and sustainable development. It will also appeal to practitioners and policymakers involved in sustainable development. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial- No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Sustainability and Energy Politics

Author: Giorel Curran
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137352337
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Book Description
The author explores the fraught politics of energy transitions in an age of climate change. She does so through an ecological modernisation and corporate social responsibility lens which she contends shapes and underpins sustainability today. Case studies cover climate policy, unconventional gas and renewable energy.

Research Handbook on Climate Change and Trade Law

Author: Panagiotis Delimatsis
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1783478446
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 564

Book Description
The interaction between climate change and trade has grown in prominence in recent years. This Research Handbook contains authoritative original contributions from leading experts working at the interface between trade and climate change. It maps the state of affairs in such diverse areas as: carbon credits and taxes, sustainable standard-setting and trade in ‘green’ goods and services or investment, from both a regional and global perspective. Panagiotis Delimatsis redefines the interrelationship of trade and climate change for future scholarship in this area.

Ethics and climate change

Author:
Publisher: IUCN
ISBN: 2831717094
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Book Description
Climate change is the most significant moral and environmental issue of our time. This project seeks to help deepen explicit ethical reflection around the world on national responses to climate change by developing a publicly available record on national compliance with ethical obligations for climate change similar to the reports that are now available on national compliance with human rights obligations.

Elgar Encyclopedia of Climate Policy

Author: Daniel J. Fiorino
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1802209204
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 483

Book Description
The Elgar Encyclopedia of Climate Policy provides a comprehensive and compelling account of the causes and potential solutions to one of the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century: climate change. With deep intellectual rigour, this Encyclopedia adeptly surveys the nature and application of various international climate change policies.

Climate Change and Capitalism in Australia

Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000455971
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
Recognizing that climate politics has been an increasingly contentious and heated topic in Australia over the past two decades, this book examines Australian capitalism as a driver of climate change and the nexus between the corporations and Coalition and Australian Labor parties. As a highly developed country, Australia is punching above its weight in terms of contributing to greenhouse gas emissions despite rising temperatures, droughts, water shortages and raging bushfires, storm surges and flooding, and the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Drawing upon both archival and ethnographic research, Hans Baer examines Australian climate politics at the margins, namely the Greens, the labour union, the environmental NGOs, and the grass-roots climate movement. Adopting a climate justice perspective which calls for "system change, not climate change" as opposed to the conventional approach of seeking to mitigate emissions through market mechanisms and techno-fixes, particularly renewable energy sources, this book posits system-challenging transitional steps to shift Australia toward an eco-socialist vision in keeping with a burgeoning global socio-ecological revolution. Accessibly written and including an interview with renowned comedian and climate activist Rod Quantock OAM, this book is essential reading for academics, students and general readers with an interest in climate change and climate activism.

Media and Global Climate Knowledge

Author: Risto Kunelius
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137523212
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Book Description
This book is a broad and detailed case study of how journalists in more than 20 countries worldwide covered the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment (AR5) reports on the state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change. Journalism, it demonstrates, is a key element in the transnational communication infrastructure of climate politics. It examines variations of coverage in different countries and locations all over the world. It looks at how IPCC scientists review the role of media, reflects on how media relate to decision-making structures and cultures, analyzes how key journalists reflect on the challenges of covering climate change, and shows how the message of IPCC was distributed in the global networks of social media.

Beyond the Coal Rush

Author: James Goodman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108846173
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
Climate change makes fossil fuels unburnable, yet global coal production has almost doubled over the last 20 years. This book explores how the world can stop mining coal - the most prolific source of greenhouse gas emissions. It documents efforts at halting coal production, focusing specifically on how campaigners are trying to stop coal mining in India, Germany, and Australia. Through in-depth comparative ethnography, it shows how local people are fighting to save their homes, livelihoods, and environments, creating new constituencies and alliances for the transition from fossil fuels. The book relates these struggles to conflicts between global climate policy and the national coal-industrial complex. With coal's meaning transformed from an important asset to a threat, and the coal industry declining, it charts reasons for continuing coal dependence, and how this can be overcome. It will provide a source of inspiration for energy transition for researchers in environment, sustainability, and politics, as well as policymakers.

The Securitization of Climate Change: Australian and United States' Military Responses (2003 - 2013)

Author: Michael Durant Thomas
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319496581
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Book Description
This book examines how the armed forces of the United States and Australia have responded to the threat posed by climate change to national security. Drawing on established securitisation frameworks (‘Copenhagen’ and ‘Paris’ Schools), the author uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques to systematically examine more than 3,500 speeches, policies and doctrinal articles since 2003. Importantly, the author undertakes an examination of the intersection between the political and the military spheres, probing the question of how ideology has influenced the military’s uptake on the issue. In this context, the author identifies the difficulty of an ostensibly apolitical institution responding to what has become both a hyper-political issue and an unprecedented security threat. A close examination of the key political actors – their intent, outlook and political mandate for broader climate action – is therefore crucial to understanding the policy freedom and constraints within which military leaders operate. The book consists of eight chapters divided into four parts, focusing on: perspectives and methodological insights; empirical case studies; case study comparison; and concluding observations. • Offers a rare and systematic examination of military climate policy by a military officer from Australia• Identifies a divergence of Australian military climate policy from that of the US military during the Obama Administration• Develops a unique method that quantifies climate security, enabling a graphical representation for quick and ready reference ideally suited to policy-makers