The politics of climate change, Open Democracy, June 2009

The route to international action on climate change can’t escape from politics. But can this be understood as tough consensus-building rather than conflict-resolution, asks Simon Maxwell.

The rooted view that climate-change policy-making is inescapably political is usually connected to an understanding of politics that puts conflict at its heart. The idea is that this is an area where choices and trade-offs - between social groups, geographies, interests and generations - abound, and the potential for conflict lurks at every turn................. (see link in title for full article)