Feeling the heat

If dangerous climate change is to be avoided, greenhouse gas emissions will have to be brought under control in emerging major emitters such as China, India, Russia and Brazil. What are the political obstacles to climate policy in these countries? What political strategies can their governments use to strengthen climate policies without incurring serious political damage? Building on its predecessor volume, Turning Down the Heat: The Politics of Climate Policy in Affluent Democracies (Palgrave Macmillan 2008), this book includes contributions on the scientific, economic and international dimensions of climate change and climate policy. The authors describe the nature and sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the history of climate policies, and the political strategies employed by governments before conclusions are drawn about the main political obstacles facing industrializing countries on climate policy and how these might be overcome.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.