Introduction

For some observers, climate change is the single most important public policy challenge of our time. But describing the ‘problem’ is not actually an easy matter. It is dizzying in its complexity, daunting in its implications, and multifaceted in a way that eludes easy categorization. Beginning with the environmental dimension, global warming is a problem of unprecedented scale. It is planetary in scope and inter-generational in its implications. Even more importantly, because climate change implicates virtually all production and consumption processes, addressing it is about nothing less than changing the way we do everything that we do, everywhere in the world. Climate change, then, is also a classic collective action problem. It can only be solved if all states, or at least the major greenhouse gas emitters, cooperate.

These difficulties are compounded by the fact that far-reaching decisions must be made under conditions of scientific uncertainty. While both the phenomenon of human-induced climate change and its dangerous potential are now beyond doubt, that was not always the case. On other issues, such as the speed and severity of climatic change, some debate continues. Not surprisingly, therefore, global warming is also an intractable political problem. How does one get states and political leaders to prioritize the issue, nationally and internationally?