Climate Politics: Can't Live With It, Can't Mitigate Without It

Abstract

Caroline Kuzemko will present her forthcoming book Climate Politics: Can't Live With it, Can't Mitigate Without it (Cambridge University Press). The book argues that the politics of climate mitigation, and its relationship to policy and society, are poorly understood and that this really matters - particularly in times of growing opposition. All scenarios of 1.5 or 2°C compliant futures view policy as the driver of change, but many researchers and policymakers also view politics as standing in the way of change – as if the two are somehow separable. Partly as a corrective, this book offers a novel, inclusive, and broad conceptualisation of climate mitigation politics, which combines insights on politics by Colin Hay (2007) with more climate mitigation focused insights from international political economy, public policy and socio-technical transitions. It presents mitigation politics, policy, and policymaking as dynamically inter-related and foregrounds the importance of capacity, social interaction, and deliberation features of politics. This conceptualisation frames the subsequent historicised, multi-scalar analysis of four inter-related 'phases' of climate mitigation politics. The analysis starts in the 1970s, when climate mitigation was not a political issue, and explores phases in its construction as an area of public policy – largely at global and national scales. There is some emphasis on constructing mitigation policy in energy sectors in high and middle-income countries, engaging with the struggles, injustices, and decisions involved in creating low GHG emissions alternatives and phasing out fossil fuels. Conceptualising politics in broad and more inclusive terms directly informs an overriding argument that climate mitigation has become politicised over the decades in a variety of ways and that that is no bad thing. Indeed, taking too narrow an approach to understanding politics runs the risk of underestimating the societal outcomes of mitigation policy and missing opportunities for deliberation and policy improvement. Drawing narrow boundaries around politics, then, places the political project of mitigation at further risk.