Climate Change and International History

Exploring how climate change has configured the international arena since the 1950s, this book reveals the ways in which climate change emerged and evolved as an international problem, and how states, scientists and NGOs have engaged in diplomatic efforts to address it. Developing amidst the Cold War, decolonization and a growing transnational environmental consciousness, it asks how this wider historical context has shaped our response to the greatest threat to humankind to date.

Thinking beyond the science of climate change to the way it is received and responded to, Ruth Morgan shows how climate science has been mobilised in the political sphere, paying particular attention to the expansion of climate diplomacy into the Global South. The privileging of climate science and the emergence of climate scepticism are explored to consider how they have undermined efforts to remedy this planetary problem. Studying climate change and international history in tandem, this book explains the origins of the debates around this environmental emergency, the response of political leaders attempting to address the threat, and the barriers we face in creating an international regime to resolve the climate crisis.