It's About Development, Stupid! International Climate Policy in a Changing World

摘要

It has become an increasingly accepted understanding that international climate policy is about socioeconomic development at least as much as it is about environmental politics. The corresponding trend to consider international climate negotiations in a development context arguably gained prominence since the UNFCCC's twelfth conference of the parties (COP12) convened in Nairobi in 2006 and in conjunction with the attention to development issues in the IPCC's fourth assessment report.' The latest gathering of international climate diplomacy in Durban (COP17, 2011) is another case in point: progress that was eventually made on the adaptation agenda proved crucial in helping governments save face and avoid an all-but-complete failure of the conference.