Politics of Climate Justice: Paralysis Above, Movement Below

by Patrick Bond

This is an indispensable book for anyone who seeks to understand world leaders' responses to climate change through the United Nations' Conference of the Parties (COP). Politics of Climate Justice provides the vital background and theoretical context to what happened at the COPS in Kyoto, Copenhagen, Cancun, and Durban. It explores the favored strategies of key elites from the crisis ridden global and national power blocs, including South Africa, and finds them incapable of reconciling the threat to the planet with their economies' addiction to fossil fuels. Finally, the book reveals sites of climate justice and interrogates the new movement's approach.

Genres: Climate Change, Nonfiction

267 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Patrick Bond is a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and director of its Centre for Civil Society since 2004. He received his PhD from the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 1993. In his work he focuses on political economy, NGO work and global justice movements in various countries.

Reviews

[Martin Empson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this is undoubtadly dated in places as it focuses on events in the run up to the Durban COP in 2011, this is still one of the best critiques of the COP process and free-market climate "solutions" that I've read.