Climate COPs and the Art of 'Muddling Through' the Ecological Crisis
Résumé
At COP26 as much as today, despite the call of scientists to step up climate action, states kept ignoring the current ecological crisis. International climate negotiations, in times of crisis, continue to opt for an incremental process of multiple small steps instead of groundbreaking decisions. When Charles Lindblom published his article The Science of ‘Muddling Through’ in 1959, he defined a policy process, now known as ‘incrementalism’ which, despite its 60 years of existence, is still relevant in today’s constant state of crisis. This article aims to demonstrate how well this theory applies to the way the current ecological crisis is handled by the climate COPs, and how incrementalism has become the ‘new normal’. Especially, it will discuss if the prescriptive view of Lindblom applies: can ‘a fast-moving sequence of small changes more speedily accomplish a dramatic alteration of the status quo than can an only infrequent major policy change’? I will argue that, while an incremental approach to global climate governance is surely frustrating and limited, it is not an absurd and blind ‘everything-is-fine’ way of dealing with the current ecological crisis. I will show that it is in fact the only way forward and has the potential to get us out of this crisis – provided that an ambitious, comprehensive and rapid incremental approach is adopted.
Domaines
Science politique
Fichier principal
Article_Oxford Political Review_TALLENT_2023.pdf (242.95 Ko)
Télécharger le fichier
Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
---|