Important further readings:

https://www.e-ir.info/2016/04/29/climate-change-adaptation-and-
international-relations-theory/

Lecture on IR Theory:
Green Politics

Summer 2022-2023
 Green Politics

The Roots of
Green Politics
 By the 1990s, International
Relations had come to recognise
the natural environment as an
increasingly significant source of
questions for the discipline,
requiring theoretical as well as
practical attention.
 What led to this understanding?
– mounting evidence that human a
ctions were significantly changing
our global climate
and presenting security problems
as well as ecological ones.
 Green Politics

The basics of Green Theory

 Ecological thought addresses the
interests of nature itself rather than
only the interests of humanity in
nature.
 Environmental issues are tragic
because we can see it coming but
seem unable or unwilling to do
anything about it. That inability is
more than a practical problem; it is a
profound theoretical challenge.
 The issues cannot be solved by
technical means but require a
change in human values.
 Green Politics

The basics of Green Theory

 a green morality might suggest
that human material
development should be curtailed
in the interest of preserving non-
human nature, this would:
– limit our freedom to consume
however much we can acquire.
– put nature before people.
 Green theory, in this sense,
is ecocentric, not
anthropocentrism (human-
centric thought).
Green Politics

Green Theory:
Ecocentrism vs. Anthropocentrism
 Ecocentrism prioritises healthy ecosystems because they are a
prerequisite to human health and wellbeing.
 Anthropocentrism sees only the short-term instrumental value of
nature to humans.
 Ecocentrism rejects the split between domestic and international
politics, given that arbitrary boundaries between nations do not
coincide with ecosystems.
– For example, air and water pollution can cross a border and climate change
cuts across all borders and populations.
 This impacts on how we understand and deal with transboundary
and global environmental issues collectively, setting aside national
self-interest.
 Green Politics

Green Theory:
Ecocentrism vs. Anthropocentrism
 Global environmental problems
require global solutions.
 This gives rise to the question of
whether we need to give up on
the idea of countries with borders
as still being relevant to people’s
lives, or
 Recast them in some more
ecologically appropriate way with
reference to how people live in
relation to their environment.
 Green Politics

Green Theory & Climate Change

 Climate change is the dominant environmental
issue of our age, caused by our dangerous
reliance on fossil fuels.
What is the solution?
 Green theory helps us to understand this in
terms of long-term ecological values rather than
short-term human interests.
 Others argue that the issue can only be solved
through investments in technology, but there is
no easy technical solution to human-induced
climate change.
 From the greens perspective, a change in human
values and behaviour is required.
 Green Politics

Green Theory & Climate Change

Continued… What is the solution? What can you do?

1. Make a voice
 Climate change presents a clear
2. Eat lessMake
meatyour
andvoice
dairy
case of injustice to both present
3. Cut back on flying
and future humans who are not
4. Leave the car at home
responsible for causing it and to
5. Reduce your energy use
the ecosystem as a whole.
6. Increase and protect green
 Therefore, a solution requires an spaces
ecocentric theory of value and a 7. Invest your money responsibly
more ethical than instrumental 8. Cut consumption – and waste
attitude to human relations in our 9. Talk about the changes you
common future. make
Green Politics

Ecosystem: Future outlook

 An outline agreement was eventually achieved in the Paris Accords of
December 2015.
 Whether or not this effort will actually address the sources and
consequences of climate change remains to be seen.
 In a world of states with primary responsibilities to their own citizens,
finding acceptable trade-offs between immediate economic wellbeing
and longerterm ecological wellbeing is difficult.
 There is some prospect of powerful states (like China) or groups of
states (like the European Union) as well as the US as Biden re-joined the
Paris Accord leading the way.
 However, the common ground available from an IR perspective of
competing states is unlikely to be anywhere near the common ground
envisioned by green theory.