Climate Change in World Politics.

Stevenson, Hayley

Climate Change in World Politics. By John Vogler. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

As John Vogler acknowledges in the opening pages of Climate Change in World Politics, many books have been written about global climate change governance so one must have a good reason to write another. He certainly found that reason, and scholars of international relations and global environmental governance alike will welcome this contribution to the literature. Vogler's justification for this book is twofold: first, the politics of states has been rather sidelined by the recent interest in nonstate actors and private environmental governance; and, second, much analysis of international climate change politics neglects the impact of the broader global political context within which climate governance unfolds. The book examines and explains how the international climate regime has developed over the past three decades against the backdrop of profound changes in the international system and global economy.

The analysis is organized into six substantive chapters focusing on different factors that explain the development of the international climate regime. The relevance of issue framing, economic interests, and principles of justice are examined in Chapters 2 through 4. This material is interesting, but I found Chapters 5 and 6 particularly engrossing. There, Vogler first examines how the pursuit of prestige and recognition drives states' negotiating positions: the leadership ambitions of the European Union (EU) in the climate regime reflect wider efforts to assert its status as a unitary actor on the international stage; China's and India's positions are shaped by a desire to reassert their power status; and the left-leaning Latin American states use climate change to assert their opposition to imperialism. Next, Vogler "provides a chronological view of the development of the climate regime within the context of the ongoing changes in the international system" (p. 131). Relevant factors here include the end of the Cold War; German unification; the dissolution of the USSR; the creation of the EU; the 2007 global economic crisis; and the formation of the Group of 20, and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China) coalitions. Vogler is right in arguing that this ought to be the "stock-in-trade" of the study of international relations (p. 6), but it is generally left in the background in studies of international relations and the environment.

Climate Change in World Politics is comprehensive in its coverage and points readers to a vast literature in which specific aspects can be explored in more detail. It is written with a fluidity and confidence that probably is only possible from someone who has been studying world politics and environmental politics since before the issue of climate change even appeared on the international agenda. Vogler's ideas are not couched in complex language, and the book is better for it. It is accessible to (and deserves to be read widely by) a broad audience of students, scholars, and the interested public.