Can new modes of governance, such as public-private partnerships, stakeholder consultations and networks, promote effective environmental policy performance as well as increased deliberative and participatory quality? This book argues that in academic inquiry and policy practice there has been a deliberative turn, manifested in a revitalized interest in deliberative democracy coupled with calls for novel forms of public-private governance. By linking theory and practice, the contributors critically examine the legitimacy and effectiveness of new modes of governance, using a range of case studies on climate, forestry, water and food safety policies from local to global levels. >Environmental Politics and Deliberative Democracy will appeal to scholars, both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as researchers of environmental politics, international relations, environmental studies and political science. It will also interest practitioners involved in the actual design and implementation of new governance modes in areas of sustainable development, food safety, forestry and climate change.

A breathtaking review which covers the major approaches and actors in the governance of climate change this carefully edited book includes essays from dozens of scholars who are shaping our understanding of responses to the real and existential risks of a warming world. The book is especially strong in its discussion of how critical social theory can help us understand the politics of climate change, in its histories of climate policy, and in the multiple perspectives it provides on the international climate regime across sectors, institutions, countries and scales. I was impressed by the diversity of authors, including the number of women contributors, and by the efforts to connect research to political action.' - Diana Liverman, University of Arizona, US'Backstrand and Loevbrand have crafted a remarkable volume, gathering over fifty cutting-edge scholars engaging every aspect of climate governance-what it has been, what it is, and what it could and should be. This is truly a one-stop shop for grasping the diversity of research on climate governance. It will engage students exploring the field, scholars seeking to understand the state of the art, and practitioners looking to make sense of the challenges of responding to this most crucial of global issues.' - Matthew Hoffman, University of Toronto, Canada 'As the ambit of climate governance has expanded out from the UN to encompass myriad actors at multiple levels, so too has the challenge of understanding the whole. This comprehensive and expertly edited Handbook provides the alpha and omega of climate governance scholarship. I confidently predict that it will become the standard reference for years to come.' - Andy Jordan, University of East Anglia, UK The 2009 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen is often represented as a turning point in global climate politics, when the diplomatic efforts to negotiate a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol failed and was replaced by a fragmented and decentralized climate governance order. In the post-Copenhagen landscape the top-down universal approach to climate governance has gradually given way to a more complex, hybrid and dispersed political landscape involving multiple actors, arenas and sites. Drawing upon contributions from more than 50 internationally renowned scholars, the Handbook assesses the state and direction of climate governance at multilateral, EU, national and local levels. The volume mobilizes multiple scholarly traditions ranging from grand theorizing to close empirical studies of micro-political practices, and spans the ideational and the material, the historical and the contemporary, the normative and the critical. The resulting collection of chapters represents the state of the art and most recent thinking in the rich and expanding scholarship on climate politics and governance. Contributors: C.E. Adler, P. Aldunce, D. Alegria, A. Anderson, S. Andresen, C. Asberg, K. Backstrand, I. Bailey, G. Bang, S. Beck, M. Betsill, H. Betts, F. Biermann, R. Borquez, M. Bostroem, H. Bulkeley, D. Ciplet, J. de Koning, L. Dilling, R.S. Dimitrov, K. Dingwerth, C. Dupont, R. Eckersley, F. Fischer, D.R. Fisher, T. Forsyth, V. Galaz, A.M. Galli, J.F. Green, R. Grundmann, A. Gupta, J. Gupta, A. Hansson, P.G. Harris, S. Hayes, K. Hochstetler, M. Hulme, K. Indvik, V. Jankovic, S. Jasanoff, C. Karlsson, M. Khan, M. Klintman, A. Kronsell, M. Lederer, B.-O. Linner, R.D. Lipschutz, E. Loevbrand, H. Lovell, M. Mason, S. Matti, J. McGee, A. Neimanis, P. Newell, S. Oberthur, A. Oels, C. Okereke, E.A. Page, C.F. Parker, A. Persson, S. Rayner, T. Rayner, P. Revell, J.T. Roberts, H. Schroeder, B. Siebenhuner, M.M. Skutsch, P. Stalley, H. Stevenson, J. Stripple, E. Turnhout, H. van Asselt, E. Viola, J. Vogler, J. Wettestad, V. Wibeck, F. Zelli

Coined barely two decades ago, the Anthropocene has become one of the most influential and controversial terms in environmental policy. Yet it remains an ambivalent and contested formulation, giving rise to a multitude of unexpected, and often uncomfortable, conversations. This book traces in detail a broad variety of such 'Anthropocene encounters': in science, philosophy and literary fiction. It asks what it means to 'think green' in a time when nature no longer offers a stable backdrop to political analysis. Do familiar political categories and concepts, such as democracy, justice, power and time, hold when confronted with a world radically transformed by humans? The book responds by inviting more radical political thought, plural forms of engagement, and extended ethical commitments, making it a fascinating and timely volume for graduate students and researchers working in earth system governance, environmental politics and studies of the Anthropocene. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.

In June 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden. This event, also known as the Stockholm Conference, was the first of its kind and it reflected mounting concerns with the transboundary environmental problems caused by modern industrial society. Fifty years later, we find ourselves in a world marked by profound, accelerating, and possibly irreversible environmental change. Today, there is simply no place on earth untouched by human influence. The Anthropocene is a concept that has been advanced to capture this novel environmental condition. It refers to an unpredictable and fragile era in planetary history when humanity is dangerously disrupting the earth's biosphere and life-upholding systems. This volume brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars and policy experts to examine what security means in this new world of humanity's own making. It asks how global institutions can respond to the systemic production of environmental risks and insecurities, and what political innovations are needed to chart a more sustainable path for global development in the decades to come. The 50-year anniversary of the UN Conference on the Human Environment offers an important backdrop to the volume and an opportunity to imagine constructive ways ahead.

Coined barely two decades ago, the Anthropocene has become one of the most influential and controversial terms in environmental policy. Yet it remains an ambivalent and contested formulation, giving rise to a multitude of unexpected, and often uncomfortable, conversations. This book traces in detail a broad variety of such 'Anthropocene encounters': in science, philosophy and literary fiction. It asks what it means to 'think green' in a time when nature no longer offers a stable backdrop to political analysis. Do familiar political categories and concepts, such as democracy, justice, power and time, hold when confronted with a world radically transformed by humans? The book responds by inviting more radical political thought, plural forms of engagement, and extended ethical commitments, making it a fascinating and timely volume for graduate students and researchers working in earth system governance, environmental politics and studies of the Anthropocene. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.