CONTENTS Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 Climate Change, Risk and Danger 11 The sceptics and their critics 18 The 'climate wars' 21 The radicals 26 Conclusion 31 2 Running Out, Running Down? 33 Peak oil 36 Sweating the assets 42 The struggle for resources 45 3 The Greens and After 48 The greens 49 Managing risk: the precautionary principle 55 'Sustainable development' . 59 Over-development 63 Polluter pays 66 Ungreen themes 67 The politics of climate change: concepts 71 vi CONTENTS 4The Track Record So Far 76 Sweden, Germany and Denmark 77 Spain and Portugal 82 The case of the UK .,, .., 83 Climate change policy and the US 87 Lessons to be drawn 90 5A Return to Planning? 94 Planning, then and now 98 Changing lives 103 Foregrounding 112 A political concordat 116 State and society: business and the NGOs 120 6Technologies and Taxes 129 Technologies: where we stand 131 The role of government 140 Promoting job creation 146 Carbon taxes 151 Carbon rationing 157 The re-emergence of utopia 160 7The Politics of Adaptation 163 Adaptation in the context of Europe 166 Floods in the UK 170 Insurance, hurricanes and typhoons 173 Adaptation: the developing world 178 8 International Negotiations, the EU and Carbon Markets 185 Further negotiations 189 The role of the EU 195 Carbon markets 198 9The Geopolitics of Climate Change 203 An illusory world community? 208 The bottom billion 213 Oil and geopolitics 217 Coalitions and collaborations- 220 The US and China 222 CONTENTS VII India and Brazil In conclusion: why we still need the UN Afterword Notes References Index 224 227 229 233 245 255