Politics of Climate Change: Crises, Conventions and Cooperations

The year 2020 was a watershed event in the history of climate change politics. It marked the end of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and the beginning of the ambitious Paris Agreement. It was also the year of the pandemic, where the disruption caused severe implications on a global scale. The pandemic also brought before the world the severity and scale of the transboundary challenges in a globally interconnected world. It exposed the weaknesses of the global institutions and governance structures in tackling the complex and imminent threat of climate change. As states prepare for the future of global climate change negotiations post the COP26 event of 2021, there has been a significant shift in the politics of climate change at all levels. The negotiations took place in the shadows of the pandemic, which has challenged the political lethargy and non-committal attitudes of states on the climate change question. Unlike in the past, climate change is now a hot issue on the political high tables. It has also spilled outside these negotiating spaces and into the public sphere. Whether it is the school strikes led by children or the indigenous struggles of marginalized populations, the politics of climate change today is far more diverse, representative, and active. At the same time, we can witness the shifts in the state's understanding of the problem, which is actively inquiring about its security and geopolitical dimensions. The boundaries between traditional and non-traditional threats to security are getting blurred as climate change, and its myriad impacts wreak havoc on ecosystem resilience, the state's welfare capacity, and people's everyday lives. Hence, this volume seeks to decipher the nature of global climate change politics in the post-pandemic and climate insecure world. Who will be its main actors, main stakeholders, and losers? How will questions of equity, sustainability, and finance interplay at the COP26 event and thereafter? How will developing and poor countries engage with the issue in the next phase of climate politics? Finally, how will the ambition of the Paris Agreement, which is reflected in the language of net-zero targets and the two degrees Celsius temperature goals, be brought into action?

Dr Swaran Singh is Chairman and Professor, Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament (CIPOD), School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), President of Association of Asia Scholars (New Delhi), Member, Governing Body, Society of Indian Ocean Studies (New Delhi). Prof Singh has been formerly visiting professor/scholar at Australian National University (Canberra), Science Po (Bordeaux, France) University of Peace (Costa Rica), Peking, Fudan and Xiamen Universities, and Shanghai Institute of International Studies and Center for Asian Studies (Hong Kong University) in China, Asian Center (University of the Philippines), and Chuo, Hiroshima and Kyoto Universities (in Japan), as also Guest Faculty at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sweden). He was Academic Consultant (2003-2007) at Center de Sciences Humaines (New Delhi), Research Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (New Delhi).

Prof Singh has published in Journal of International Affairs (Columbia University), Security Challenges (Australian National University), Journal of Indian Ocean Region (Perth, Australia), Issues & Studies (Taiwan National University), African Security (Institute of Security Studies), BISS Journal (Dhaka), and several Chinese and Indian journals. Prof Singh co-edited Multilateralism in the Indo Pacific ― Conceptual and Operational Challenges (Routledge, 2022), Revisiting Gandhi: Legacies for Global Peace and National Integration (World Scientific, Singapore, 2021), Corridors of Engagement (2020), Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Studies of China and Chineseness: Unlearning Binaries (2020), BCIM Economic Corridor: Chinese and Indian Perspectives (2017), Transforming South Asia: Imperatives for Action (2013); India and the GCC Countries, Iran and Iraq: Emerging Security Perspectives (2013), On China by India: From Civilization to State (2012), Emerging China: Prospects for Partnership in Asia (2012), Asia's Multilateralism (in Chinese 2012); Edited China-Pakistan Strategic Cooperation: Indian Perspectives (2007); Co-authored Regionalism in South Asian Diplomacy (2007) and authored Nuclear Command & Control in Southern Asia: China, India, Pakistan (2010), China-India Economic Engagement: Building Mutual Confidence (2005), China-South Asia: Issues, Equations, Policies (2003).

Reena Marwah (M.Phil, Delhi University; PhD, India, International Business) is Professor, Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University.

She was an ICSSR Senior Fellow, MHRD, Govt. of India, affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi from June 2017 to May, 2019, during which her study was on Reimagining India-Thailand Relations. She has also been on deputation as Senior Academic Consultant, ICSSR, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India for three years (2012–2015) and continued, on behalf of ICSSR to coordinate/ lead the India-Europe Research Platform (EqUIP), comprising 10 research councils of Europe till July 2017. She is the recipient of several prestigious fellowships, including the McNamara fellowship of the World Bank, 1999–2000, and the Asia fellowship of the Asian Scholarship Foundation 2002–03, during which she undertook research in Thailand and Nepal. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL). She has been a Consultant for the World Bank and UN Women. She is the founding editor of Millennial Asia, a triannual journal on Asian Studies of the Association of Asia Scholars, published by Sage Publishers.