Domestic Politics and International Negotiations: the Politics of Global Warming in the United States

Abstract

The United States chose an approach to global warming that came to be viewed by much of the international community as a barrier to effective action. In explaining why, this article analyzes the interaction of the domestic political process and international negotiations. It argues that—while external pressures brought to bear through the negotiations leading up to UNCED pushed the domestic agenda on global warming—the nature of the political process, in combination with the nature of the global warming issue itself, set the general limits for U.S. participation in cooperative international arrangements to manage global warming. That is, given the broad set of interests activated by global warming concerns and the ready access those interests had to decision-making bodies through a pluralist policy process, consensus on an approach to global warming proved impossible. The U.S., unwilling to accept international commitments that obligated it to domestic actions, thwarted efforts to get an international treaty containing firm targets and timetables.

The Construction of Global Warming and the Politics of Science

“…Political analysis has focused primarily on the powerful interests competing to set climate change policy. Political scientists and geographers have charted the fate of local climate change mitigation and energy conservation initiatives (Hinchliffe 1996;Lambright, Changnon, and Harvey 1996;Bulkeley 1997;Collier 1997) and intrastate struggles to fashion coherent national energy and environmental policy responses to global warming (Hatch 1993;O'Riordan and Jäger 1996;Sewell 1996;Pleune 1997;Rajan 1997). Students of international relations have studied the geopolitics of negotiating international environmental agreements on climate change (Hecht and Tirpak 1995;Rowlands 1995;Paterson 1996;Yearley 1996;Grubb, Vrolijk, and Brack 1999).…”

Climate change and the oil industry

“…Fierce lobby campaigns based on funding political allies and media campaigns are a prominent part of US political culture (Kolk, 2001). Industry lobbying has also been a prominent part of energy and climate policy (Hatch, 1993). The Constitution severely restricts the freedom of action of the executive branch, that is, the administration.…”