Governing the End
The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage
Will be published approx. on 16. September 2025
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-226-84296-7 (ISBN)
Description
A searing account of how the international community is trying-and failing-to address the worst effects of climate change and the differential burdens borne by rich and poor countries.
Climate change is increasingly accepted as a global emergency creating irrevocable losses for the planet. Yet, each country experiences these losses differently, and reaching even inadequate political agreements is fraught with contestation. Governing the End untangles the complex relationship between deteriorating environmental conditions, high politics, and everyday diplomatic practices, focusing on the United Nations' agreement to address "loss and damage" and subsequent battles over implementation.
Lisa Vanhala looks at the differing assumptions and strategic framings that poor and rich countries bring to bear and asks why some norms emerge and diffuse while others fail to do so. Governing the End is based on ethnographic observation of eight years of UN meetings and negotiations and more than one hundred and fifty interviews with diplomats, policymakers, UN secretariat staff, experts, and activists. It explores explicit political contestation, as well as the more clandestine politics that have stymied implementation and substantially reduced the scope of compensation to poor countries. In doing so, Governing the End elucidates the successes and failures of international climate governance, revealing the importance of how ideas are constructed and then institutionally embodied.
Climate change is increasingly accepted as a global emergency creating irrevocable losses for the planet. Yet, each country experiences these losses differently, and reaching even inadequate political agreements is fraught with contestation. Governing the End untangles the complex relationship between deteriorating environmental conditions, high politics, and everyday diplomatic practices, focusing on the United Nations' agreement to address "loss and damage" and subsequent battles over implementation.
Lisa Vanhala looks at the differing assumptions and strategic framings that poor and rich countries bring to bear and asks why some norms emerge and diffuse while others fail to do so. Governing the End is based on ethnographic observation of eight years of UN meetings and negotiations and more than one hundred and fifty interviews with diplomats, policymakers, UN secretariat staff, experts, and activists. It explores explicit political contestation, as well as the more clandestine politics that have stymied implementation and substantially reduced the scope of compensation to poor countries. In doing so, Governing the End elucidates the successes and failures of international climate governance, revealing the importance of how ideas are constructed and then institutionally embodied.
Reviews / Votes
"Compelling, illuminating, and provocative, Governing the End is a major scholarly achievement that offers an expansive yet detailed and accessible analysis of the international politics addressing (or evading, as often is the case) the challenges of climate change." -- Michael McCann | author of "Union by Law: Filipino American Labor Activists, Rights Radicalism, and Racial Capitalism" "A landmark contribution to one of the most urgent questions of global justice: how to compensate those the least responsible for and yet most affected by climate change. Grounded in rigorous research, Governing the End offers an incisive account of international law's failures to address this pressing issue. It should be required reading for scholars, policymakers, advocates, and all those committed to understanding and advancing climate justice." -- Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito | author of "Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to Accelerate Climate Action" "Vanhala provides a much needed and insightful account of the history, politics, and governance of loss and damage in the climate regime. She reveals how the constructive ambiguity of the concept sowed the seeds for future challenges-glossing over critical issues of responsibility and accountability. Ultimately, Vanhala argues, these problems have contributed to the end of governing-where policymakers have created minimal rules which fall short of addressing the underlying challenges we all now face." -- Jessica F. Green | University of TorontoMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
5 halftones, 2 tables
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
472 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-84296-7 (9780226842967)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lisa Vanhala is professor of political science at University College London. She is the author of Making Disability Rights a Reality?: Disability Rights Activists and Legal Mobilization and coeditor of Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage: The National Turn.
Content
List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction: The End as a Starting Point
2. Theorizing the Governance of Climate Change Loss and Damage
3. Deploying an Ethnographic Sensibility to Study Global Climate Governance
4. Constructing Climate Change Loss and Damage in International Law
5. Putting Ambiguity into Practice(s): The Loss and Damage Executive Committee
6. Climate Change and Migration: The UNFCCC Task Force on Displacement
7. Following the Finance: Building the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage
8. Conclusion: The End of Governing
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
1. Introduction: The End as a Starting Point
2. Theorizing the Governance of Climate Change Loss and Damage
3. Deploying an Ethnographic Sensibility to Study Global Climate Governance
4. Constructing Climate Change Loss and Damage in International Law
5. Putting Ambiguity into Practice(s): The Loss and Damage Executive Committee
6. Climate Change and Migration: The UNFCCC Task Force on Displacement
7. Following the Finance: Building the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage
8. Conclusion: The End of Governing
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index