Global Warming Gridlock: Creating More Effective Strategies for Protecting the Planet.

• Author: Hughes, Gordon

Global Warming Gridlock: Creating More Effective Strategies for Protecting the Planet by DAVID VICTOR (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 392 pages. ISBN: 780-5-2186-501-2. Hardback.

This book is likely to remind many readers of the Punch cartoon about the curate's egg. The good parts are that it includes some important and interesting material explaining the gridlock in the development of policies to address climate change and outlining alternative strategies that may lead to better outcomes. Unfortunately, these arguments are embedded in a presentation that is sometimes bewildering and often irritating because of the amount of repetition, the reliance upon assertion rather than data and analysis, and an emphasis on issues of U.S. policy with limited consideration--or understanding--of the perspectives of other important agents.

For those with limited time and patience, Chapters 1 and 7 are, in Michelin terms, "worth a detour." Chapter 1 provides an excellent overview of the argument. Victor argues that [CO.SUB.2] is a particularly difficult pollutant to control and that climate diplomacy has relied upon a series of myths about how policies can be designed and implemented. Focusing on targets and timetables will ensure that any agreements are constrained in membership and content by the inability of governments to exercise effective control over national emissions. Instead, he argues that diplomacy should focus on forming voluntary clubs of countries who commit to implementing certain policies subject to collective scrutiny. Such clubs can take on new members and expand their commitments over time as the advantages of membership and the benefits of collective action become apparent.

Few readers need to go beyond this overview. Those who have attended international environmental conferences may be interested in Chapter 7 which examines why climate diplomacy is different from other forms of environmental diplomacy. In essence, Victor argues that climate diplomats faced a difficult problem and made it worse by deploying the wrong tools. Negotiators may feel that this is a case of shooting the messenger, because they have to work with the political expectations of the major parties in the process. The key role of the EU is acknowledged but Victor does not examine how the EU's approach to climate negotiations has been shaped by the internal procedures of the EU in dealing with environmental policy.

After discussing what has gone...