The History of Global Climate Governance

Joyeeta Gupta is Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South, in the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She also works as part of the scientific steering committees of many different international programmes including the Global Water Systems project and the Earth System Governance project. Professor Gupta is Editor-in-Chief of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics and is on the editorial board of several journals, including the Carbon and Law Review, Environmental Science and Policy, and new journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. Her published work includes writing as a lead author for both the IPCC Report which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore and also the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment which won the Zaved Second Prize, in addition to several books on climate change including The Climate Change Convention and Developing Countries: From Conflict to Consensus? (1997) and Our Simmering Planet: What to do About Global Warming (2001). She is also the co-editor of Mainstreaming Climate Change in Development Cooperation (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

• Foreword Yvo de Boer; Preface and acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Part I. Introduction: 1. Grasping the essentials of the climate change problem; 2. Mitigation, adaptation and geo-engineering; Part II. The History of the Negotiations: 3. Setting the stage: defining the climate problem (until 1990); 4. Institutionalising key issues: the Framework Convention on Climate Change (1991–1996); 5. Progress despite challenges: towards the Kyoto Protocol and beyond (1997–2001); 6. The regime under challenge: leadership competition sets in (2001–2007); 7. Enlarging the negotiating pie; Part III. Issues in Global Climate Governance: 8. Countries, coalitions, other actors and negotiation challenges; 9. Litigation and human rights; Part IV. Towards the Future: 10. Climate governance: a steep learning curve!; References; Index.

'Joyeeta Gupta's analytical history tour of a quarter-century of climate change negotiations provides a good entry point for newcomers and a pause for reflection by veterans. The former will benefit from the foundations of her analysis in climate science and sustainability, while the latter will be intrigued by her outreach to the domains of international law and human rights.' Michael Zammit Cutajar, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC secretariat, 1991–2002, and Chairman of the Guardian of Future Generations under the Sustainable Development Act (2012), Malta