Environmental Policy: Global Warming Gridlock

Global Warming Gridlock casts light on the complexity of policy making on an international scale. Global warming is much more than just an issue for the United States; it encompasses all nations that make up the globe and unfortunately has no clear timeline. This mandates the need for international environmental policy, but even with a great deal of support from both science and the public attempts at these types of policies have largely proved unsuccessful. Victor takes the time in his book to outline the causes of failed policy in addition to solutions that may help make successful policymaking. There are various ideas for what is the best policy regarding climate change, and ultimately it relies on international efforts to mitigate some of the worst effects caused by climate change. There are three major topics that tend to govern this effort and spark a great deal of controversy: relations between developing and developed countries, ways to design and strategize policy, and lastly decision making done on an international scale.

Global warming has largely been put at the forefront of the environmental conservation debate causing politicians to be placed in the line of fire for dealing with this issue. To really understand climate policy and how to work with global warming, Victor identifies three main parts: regulating emissions that cause climate change, boosting investment in new knowledge which allows better and affordable technology as well as encouraging better informed decisions, and bracing for the large changes that climate change can cause (Victor, 2011, p. 61). De Coninck identifies in his paper that international technology oriented agreements (TOAs) and putting efforts into greenhouse gas reducing technologies is on...

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