The Age of Climate Change, as a Challenge for States, and IR Theories

Lassi Heininen ()
Additional contact information
Lassi Heininen: University of Lapland

A chapter in Arctic Fever, 2022, pp 45-66 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract There is a question, if States as the signatories of the Paris Agreement are seriously trying and capable to reach the goals that average temperatures will not rise more than +1.5 degrees Celsius. Or, is there political inability in the implementation, in particular when taking into consideration huge infrastructure investments of mega-projects for the post-COVID-19 recovery? From the point of view of climate change (mitigation) and environmental protection the situation does not look promising, though climate change is well known today there is neither holistic understanding of the dynamics of the combination of climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity, nor state policies or coordinated international programs for an existing global crisis. Instead there is a contradiction between rhetoric and deeds. Behind is that environmental issues, in particular climate change and biodiversity, are neither explicitly discussed in main IR theories, nor examined and analyzed enough in Political sciences research, but mostly in light of critical research in alternatives and critical theories. This article discusses environmental issues, including climate change, in IR and Political sciences theories and research, as well as a challenge for States and state policies. First, the paper briefly describes how environmental issues were brought onto political agenda of States; secondly, it discusses environmental issues in IR/Political sciences research based on a review of twelve textbooks (in 1990–2019); and finally, conclusions and brief discussion about hesitation of States to prioritize climate change mitigation in their policies.

Keywords: Climate change; Ecology; Discourse; State; IR theory; Textbooks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-16-9616-9_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789811696169

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-9616-9_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().