Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. In this authoritative Advanced Introduction, Ken Conca expertly examines the fundamentals of water politics, covering poverty, health and livelihoods alongside key areas such as water law, the environment, international politics and the growing role of climate change in water governance. Key features include: analysis of water politics and policy grounded in law, politics, economics, and environmental management a detailed overview of not only research and scholarship in the field but also the perspectives and activities of the community of practice examination of the major areas of contention in current water policy, including pricing and privatization, large dams and contentious infrastructure, water and climate adaptation, cooperation and conflict in international river basins, and the food-water-energy nexus. This book provides essential reading for scholars and students of political science, public policy, environment studies, human geography and related social sciences, in addition to decision makers and policy makers in the water and environmental policy fields.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. In this authoritative Advanced Introduction, Ken Conca expertly examines the fundamentals of water politics, covering poverty, health and livelihoods alongside key areas such as water law, the environment, international politics and the growing role of climate change in water governance. Key features include: analysis of water politics and policy grounded in law, politics, economics, and environmental management a detailed overview of not only research and scholarship in the field but also the perspectives and activities of the community of practice examination of the major areas of contention in current water policy, including pricing and privatization, large dams and contentious infrastructure, water and climate adaptation, cooperation and conflict in international river basins, and the food-water-energy nexus. This book provides essential reading for scholars and students of political science, public policy, environment studies, human geography and related social sciences, in addition to decision makers and policy makers in the water and environmental policy fields.

Why is the United Nations not more effective on global environmental challenges? The UN Charter mandates the global organization to seek four noble aspirations: international peace and security, rule of law among nations, human rights for all people, and social progress through development. On environmental issues, however, the UN has understood its charge much more narrowly: it works for "better law between nations" and "better development within them." This approach treats peace and human rights as unrelated to the world's environmental problems, despite a large body of evidence to the contrary. In this path-breaking book, a leading scholar of global environmental governance critiques the UN's failure to use its mandates on human rights and peace as tools in its environmental work. The book traces the institutionalization and performance of the UN's "law and development" framework and the parallel silence on rights and peace. Despite some important gains, the traditional approach is failing for some of world's most pressing and contentious environmental challenges, and has lost most of the political momentum it once enjoyed. The disastrous "Rio+20" Summit laid this fact bare, as assembled governments failed to find meaningful agreement on any of the most pressing issues. By not treating the environment as a human rights issue, the UN fails to mobilize powerful tools for accountability in the face of pollution and resource degradation. And by ignoring the conflict potential around natural resources and environmental protection efforts, the UN misses opportunities to transform the destructive cycle of violence and vulnerability around resource extraction. The book traces the history of the UN's traditional approach, maps its increasingly apparent limits, and suggests needed reforms. Detailed case histories for each of the four mandate domains flag several promising initiatives, while identifying barriers to transformation. Its core implication: the UN's environmental efforts require not just a managerial reorganization but a conceptual revolution-one that brings to bear the full force of the organization's mandate. Peacebuilding, conflict sensitivity, rights-based frameworks, and accountability mechanisms can be used to enhance the UN's environmental effectiveness and legitimacy.

More than three decades ago the seminal Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment took place, in 1992 the Earth Summit took place and continued via Rio to Johannesburg, yet still we have failed to secure the basis for providing the basis for a serious approach to global environmental governance.

Taking a critical perspective, rooted in political economy, regulation theory, and post-sovereign international relations theory, this book seeks to answer these questions concerning the governance of sustainability in a globalizing world economy. The book offers a comprehensive framework on globalization and governance to examine what institutional mechanisms and arrangements will enable us to achieve sustainable environmental governance. Global Environmental Governance

• Examines the current global institutions and the cracks and failures in the framework of global environmental governance.
• Addresses the problematic relationship between sustainability and globalization.
• Explores areas of development and environment that have not seen the processes of institutionalization.
• Examines the marketization of environmental policymaking; stakeholder politics and environmental policymaking.; socio-economic justice; the political origins of sustainable consumption; transnational actors and multi-level global governance.

This book will be of will of interest and importance to students and researchers of political science, international studies, political economy and environmental studies.

More than three decades ago the seminal Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment took place, in 1992 the Earth Summit took place and continued via Rio to Johannesburg, yet still we have failed to secure the basis for providing the basis for a serious approach to global environmental governance.

Taking a critical perspective, rooted in political economy, regulation theory, and post-sovereign international relations theory, this book seeks to answer these questions concerning the governance of sustainability in a globalizing world economy. The book offers a comprehensive framework on globalization and governance to examine what institutional mechanisms and arrangements will enable us to achieve sustainable environmental governance. Global Environmental Governance

• Examines the current global institutions and the cracks and failures in the framework of global environmental governance.
• Addresses the problematic relationship between sustainability and globalization.
• Explores areas of development and environment that have not seen the processes of institutionalization.
• Examines the marketization of environmental policymaking; stakeholder politics and environmental policymaking.; socio-economic justice; the political origins of sustainable consumption; transnational actors and multi-level global governance.

This book will be of will of interest and importance to students and researchers of political science, international studies, political economy and environmental studies.

How does our faith affect how we think about and respond to climate change? Climate Politics and the Power of Religion is an edited collection that explores the diverse ways that religion shapes climate politics at the local, national, and international levels. Drawing on case studies from across the globe, it stands at the intersection of religious studies, environment policy, and global politics. From small island nations confronting sea-level rise and intensifying tropical storms to high-elevation communities in the Andes and Himalayas wrestling with accelerating glacial melt, there is tremendous variation in the ways that societies draw on religion to understand and contend with climate change. Climate Politics and the Power of Religion offers 10 timely case studies that demonstrate how different communities render climate change within their own moral vocabularies and how such moral claims find purchase in activism and public debates about climate policy. Whether it be Hindutva policymakers in India, curanderos in Peru, or working-class people's concerns about the transgressions of petroleum extraction in Trinidad—religion affects how they all are making sense of and responding to this escalating global catastrophe.

Revised and updated throughout, this unique anthology examines global environmental politics from a range of perspectives and captures the voices of both the powerless and the powerful. Paradigms of sustainability, environmental security, and ecological justice illustrate the many ways environmental challenges and their solutions are framed in contemporary international debates about climate, water, forests, toxics, energy, food, and biodiversity. Organized thematically, the selections offer a truly global scope. Seventeen new readings explore climate justice, globalization, land and water grabs, climate change and conflict, China's international environmental relations, and the future of climate politics in the wake of the Paris Agreement. This book stresses the underlying questions of power, interests, authority, and legitimacy that shape environmental debates, and it provides readers with a global range of perspectives on the critical challenges facing the planet and its people. This new edition of Green Planet Blues connects directly with a wide-range of upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level courses.

How does our faith affect how we think about and respond to climate change? Climate Politics and the Power of Religion is an edited collection that explores the diverse ways that religion shapes climate politics at the local, national, and international levels. Drawing on case studies from across the globe, it stands at the intersection of religious studies, environment policy, and global politics. From small island nations confronting sea-level rise and intensifying tropical storms to high-elevation communities in the Andes and Himalayas wrestling with accelerating glacial melt, there is tremendous variation in the ways that societies draw on religion to understand and contend with climate change. Climate Politics and the Power of Religion offers 10 timely case studies that demonstrate how different communities render climate change within their own moral vocabularies and how such moral claims find purchase in activism and public debates about climate policy. Whether it be Hindutva policymakers in India, curanderos in Peru, or working-class people's concerns about the transgressions of petroleum extraction in Trinidad-religion affects how they all are making sense of and responding to this escalating global catastrophe.

Revised and updated throughout, this unique anthology examines global environmental politics from a range of perspectives and captures the voices of both the powerless and the powerful. Paradigms of sustainability, environmental security, and ecological justice illustrate the many ways environmental challenges and their solutions are framed in contemporary international debates about climate, water, forests, toxics, energy, food, and biodiversity. Organized thematically, the selections offer a truly global scope. Seventeen new readings explore climate justice, globalization, land and water grabs, climate change and conflict, China's international environmental relations, and the future of climate politics in the wake of the Paris Agreement. This book stresses the underlying questions of power, interests, authority, and legitimacy that shape environmental debates, and it provides readers with a global range of perspectives on the critical challenges facing the planet and its people. This new edition of Green Planet Blues connects directly with a wide-range of upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level courses.

Why is the United Nations not more effective on global environmental challenges? The UN Charter mandates the global organization to seek four noble aspirations: international peace and security, rule of law among nations, human rights for all people, and social progress through development. On environmental issues, however, the UN has understood its charge much more narrowly: it works for "better law between nations" and "better development within them." This approach treats peace and human rights as unrelated to the world's environmental problems, despite a large body of evidence to the contrary. In this path-breaking book, a leading scholar of global environmental governance critiques the UN's failure to use its mandates on human rights and peace as tools in its environmental work. The book traces the institutionalization and performance of the UN's "law and development" framework and the parallel silence on rights and peace. Despite some important gains, the traditional approach is failing for some of world's most pressing and contentious environmental challenges, and has lost most of the political momentum it once enjoyed. The disastrous "Rio+20" Summit laid this fact bare, as assembled governments failed to find meaningful agreement on any of the most pressing issues. By not treating the environment as a human rights issue, the UN fails to mobilize powerful tools for accountability in the face of pollution and resource degradation. And by ignoring the conflict potential around natural resources and environmental protection efforts, the UN misses opportunities to transform the destructive cycle of violence and vulnerability around resource extraction. The book traces the history of the UN's traditional approach, maps its increasingly apparent limits, and suggests needed reforms. Detailed case histories for each of the four mandate domains flag several promising initiatives, while identifying barriers to transformation. Its core implication: the UN's environmental efforts require not just a managerial reorganization but a conceptual revolution-one that brings to bear the full force of the organization's mandate. Peacebuilding, conflict sensitivity, rights-based frameworks, and accountability mechanisms can be used to enhance the UN's environmental effectiveness and legitimacy.

Water is a basic human need and a scarce commodity with increasing value to farmers, industries, and cities in an urbanizing world. It is unpredictable in supply and quality, difficult to contain or direct, and notoriously difficult to manage well. Several trends - climate change, the endurance of widespread global water poverty, intensifying competition among rival uses and users, and the vulnerability of critical freshwater ecosystems - combine to intensify the challenges of governing water wisely, fairly, and efficiently. The twenty-seven chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy address such issues over the course of seven thematic sections. These themes reflect familiar frameworks in the water policy world, including water, poverty, and health; water and nature; and water equity and justice. Other sections look at emergent and contentious policy arenas, including the water/energy/food nexus and management of uncertainty in water supply, or connect well-established strands in new ways, including sections on water tools (water price and value, supply and demand, privatization, corporate responsibility) and issues surrounding transboundary waters. This volume conceives of water as a global issue, and gathers a diverse group of leading scholars of water politics and policy.

Winner of the 2006 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award presented by the International Studies Association (ISA) and Winner of the 2006 Chadwick F. Alger Award presented by the International Studies Association (ISA) Water is a key component of critical ecosystems, a marketable commodity, a foundation of local communities and cultures, and a powerful means of social control. It has become a source of contentious politics and social controversy on a global scale, and the management of water conflicts is one of the biggest challenges in the effort to achieve effective global environmental governance. In "Governing Water," Ken Conca examines political struggles to create a global framework for the governance of water. Threats to the world's rivers, watersheds, and critical freshwater ecosystems have resisted the establishment of effective global agreements through intergovernmental bargaining because the conditions for successful interstate cooperation--effective state authority, stable knowledge frameworks, and a territorialized understanding of nature--cannot be imposed upon water controversies. But while interstate water diplomacy has faltered, less formalized institutions--socially and politically embedded rules, roles, and practices--have emerged to help shape water governance locally and globally. Conca examines the politics of these institutions, presenting a framework for understanding global environmental governance based on key institutional presumptions about territoriality, authority, and knowledge. He maps four distinct processes of institution building: formal international regimes for shared rivers; international networking among water experts and professionals; social movementsopposing the construction of large dams; and the struggle surrounding transnational water "marketization." These cases illustrate the potential for alternative institutional forms in situations where traditional interstate regimes are ineffective.

"The State and Social Power in Global Environmental Politics" examines how the difficult issues of social, political, and economic relations will complicate the efforts initiated at the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The contributors argue that national governments must begin to acknowledge the role of new actors in their environmental policies.

The authors of these original essays -including Jesse C. Ribot, James N. Rosenau, Barbara Jancar, and Ann Hawkins- envision a world in which governments, driven by various pressures, find themselves increasingly bound to common efforts and joint solutions.