Introduction

This book is concerned with explanations of the content and formulation of international climate policy; the way in which one might account for the efforts of the international community to engage with the question of human interference with the global climate system. In an attempt to understand the nature and scope of international climate policy from a new perspective, discussion focuses on the political impact of four sets of non-governmental actors whose importance has not been conceptualised in a developed manner in the literature on global warming. The terms non-governmental and non-state actors are used interchangeably throughout the book and refer to actors that are not officially part of national government.

The four groups of non-state actor looked at in relation to the politics of global warming are Working Group 1 of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the mass media, the fossil fuel lobbies and environmental pressure groups. These non-governmental actors in particular, have been chosen as a means by which to challenge predominant explanations in the literature on global environmental politics, which generally lack analysis of these actors. Hence the purpose of this book is twofold. Firstly, it seeks to redress the imbalance in the international relations literature on global environmental politics towards state-centric analysis of ‘regimes’ as the key location for explanations of political outcomes. It does this by focusing upon the importance of sub- and trans-state non-governmental actors.