Australian Climate Policy and Diplomacy provides a well overdue critique of existing, and high-profile, publications that convey the ‘greenhouse mafia’ hypothesis, which posits that Australia’s weak policy response to climate change is the result of a menacing domestic fossil fuel lobby. Ben L. Parr argues that the shared government–industry discourse about protecting Australia’s industrial competitiveness has had a more decisive influence in shaping and legitimising Australian climate policy than the direct lobbying tactics of the fossil fuel industry. Parr also reveals how the divergent foreign policy discourses and traditions of Australia’s two major political parties – as internationalist versus alliance-focused – have enabled and constrained their climate diplomacy and domestic policies over time. To demonstrate his argument, he presents a discourse analysis woven into a chronological policy narrative, comprising more than 1000 primary texts (media releases, interviews, and speeches) generated by prime ministers and key fossil fuel lobbyists. Overall, this volume illustrates how domestic forces have and are influencing Australia’s climate policy. In doing so, it also provides a framework that can be adapted to examine climate mitigation policies in other countries, notably Canada and the US. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental policy and governance, and Australian climate change policy and politics more specifically, as well as policymakers and practitioners working in these fields.

This book delivers an up-to-date explanation for Australia's weak response to climate change. It contends the dominant'greenhouse mafia' theory, which argues that Australia's weak policy response to climate change is the result of a menacing domestic fossil fuel lobby.

The European Union has long played a leadership role in the global response to climate change, including the development and dissemination of climate-friendly technologies such as renewable energy. EU diplomacy has been a vital contributor to the development of international cooperation on climate change through the agreement of the United Nations Climate Convention, its Kyoto Protocol and, most recently, the Paris Agreement. In addition, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States means that the EU contribution to climate diplomacy will become more important still, both in filling the leadership gap (together with other major economies) and in responding to any sabotage by the Trump administration. This book will extend knowledge of the EU as a key actor in climate diplomacy by bringing together leading practitioners and researchers in this field to take stock of the EU’s current role and emerging issues. Contributions will be grouped into three strands: 1) the interplay between EU climate diplomacy and internal EU politics; 2) how the EU’s legal order is a factor that determines, enables and constrains its climate diplomacy; and 3) the EU’s contribution to diplomacy concerning climate technology both under the Climate Convention and more broadly. Collectively, these contributions will chart the EU’s role at a critical time of transition and uncertainty in the international response to climate change. EU Climate Diplomacy: Politics, Law and Negotiations will be of great relevance to students, scholars and policymakers with an interest in international climate politics and policy, transnational environmental law and politics and EU studies more generally.

This text provides an account of the key issues that affect climate change policy in Australia, detailing the policy failures, the murky politics, the corruption of the policy process, the influence of the fossil-fuel industries on policy makers, and the ethical issues that underpin the debate.

The essential primer for understanding climate diplomacy, describing both the major players and the path to progress, from the 1992 Rio Summit to the 2015 Paris Climate Conference Climate Diplomacy from Rio to Paris is the first accessible overview of climate diplomacy in its first quarter century. The author, who has reported on energy and climate for two decades, provides readers with a nuanced account of the major players and their interests—from the United States, the European Union, and China to environmental organizations, the United Nations, and the Vatican—and analyzes the outcomes of the major climate conferences at Rio, Kyoto, Copenhagen, and Paris.

Since 2009 there has been a fundamental shift in the way that the Pacific Island states engage with regional and world politics. The region has experienced, what Kiribati President Anote Tong has aptly called, a ‘paradigm shift’ in ideas about how Pacific diplomacy should be organised, and on what principles it should operate. Many leaders have called for a heightened Pacific voice in global affairs and a new commitment to establishing Pacific Island control of this diplomatic process. This change in thinking has been expressed in the establishment of new channels and arenas for Pacific diplomacy at the regional and global levels and new ways of connecting the two levels through active use of intermediate diplomatic associations. The New Pacific Diplomacy brings together a range of analyses and perspectives on these dramatic new developments in Pacific diplomacy at sub-regional, regional and global levels, and in the key sectors of global negotiation for Pacific states – fisheries, climate change, decolonisation, and trade.

This pivot sheds light on U.S. foreign policy objectives by examining diplomatic cables produced by the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Australia, some which have been officially declassified over the past 30 years and others which were made public by the anti-secrecy group, WikiLeaks. Providing an original analysis of the cables, this book provides the context and explanations necessary for readers to understand how the U.S. Embassy’s objectives in Australia and the wider world have evolved since the 1980's. It shows that Australian policymakers work closely with their American counterparts, aligning Australian foreign policy to suit American preferences. It examines a range of U.S. government priorities, from strategic goals, commercial objectives, public diplomacy, financial sanctions against terrorism, and diplomatic actions related to climate change, looking back at key events in the relationship such as sanctions against Iraq, the 2008 Global Financial crisis, intellectual property protection and the rise of China.