Search results for ""author johannes urpelainen""

Emerging economies have fundamentally transformed global environmental politics. Led by China and India, they increasingly make or break international negotiations, which now require agreement among a large number of governments with widely varied preferences. Emerging economies—which still suffer from widespread poverty and frequently struggle with policy implementation—often feel that Western-led initiatives neglect their needs. What does the global environmental policy landscape look like in the age of a rising Global South?This book explains why emerging economies have come to dominate global environmental politics and examines the implications for future international cooperation. Johannes Urpelainen shows that emerging economies continue to prioritize economic growth and often have limited institutional capacity to contain the environmental destruction that it causes. However, he argues, despite barriers to cooperation, innovative bargaining and institutional design offer a way forward. Bottom-up agreements that respect national sovereignty and invest in capacity building hold more promise than traditional top-down treaties with binding commitments.The book features detailed discussions of attempts to address hazardous chemicals, loss of biodiversity, and climate change; a comparative analysis of China and India; and case studies of nine other emerging economies around the world. Global Environmental Politics is an essential, forward-looking overview of today’s most pressing international issue.

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Emerging economies have fundamentally transformed global environmental politics. Led by China and India, they increasingly make or break international negotiations, which now require agreement among a large number of governments with widely varied preferences. Emerging economies—which still suffer from widespread poverty and frequently struggle with policy implementation—often feel that Western-led initiatives neglect their needs. What does the global environmental policy landscape look like in the age of a rising Global South?This book explains why emerging economies have come to dominate global environmental politics and examines the implications for future international cooperation. Johannes Urpelainen shows that emerging economies continue to prioritize economic growth and often have limited institutional capacity to contain the environmental destruction that it causes. However, he argues, despite barriers to cooperation, innovative bargaining and institutional design offer a way forward. Bottom-up agreements that respect national sovereignty and invest in capacity building hold more promise than traditional top-down treaties with binding commitments.The book features detailed discussions of attempts to address hazardous chemicals, loss of biodiversity, and climate change; a comparative analysis of China and India; and case studies of nine other emerging economies around the world. Global Environmental Politics is an essential, forward-looking overview of today’s most pressing international issue.

Read more less

In the past twenty-five years, a number of countries have made the transition to democracy. The support of international organizations is essential to success on this difficult path. Yet, despite extensive research into the relationship between democratic transitions and membership in international organizations, the mechanisms underlying the relationship remain unclear. With Organizing Democracy, Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen argue that leaders of transitional democracies often have to draw on the support of international organizations to provide the public goods and expertise needed to consolidate democratic rule. Looking at the Baltic states' accession to NATO, Poast and Urpelainen provide a compelling and statistically rigorous account of the sorts of support transitional democracies draw from international institutions. They also show that, in many cases, the leaders of new democracies must actually create new international organizations to better serve their needs, since they may not qualify for help from existing ones.

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India is driving some of the most important trends in global energy markets—with vast environmental implications. As the country grows wealthier, Indians are buying more cars, air conditioners, plane tickets, and other goods that increase demand for fossil fuels. At the same time, the country still faces widespread poverty, and it struggles to address persistent environmental and energy-sector problems, from frequent power outages to a significant number of deaths linked to air pollution.Johannes Urpelainen provides an expert guide to India’s energy and environmental issues that incorporates both domestic and global perspectives. He details how unequal economic development and rapid population growth have brought the country to its current state: a potential engine of the world economy hampered by environmental hazards and energy poverty. Urpelainen argues that institutional shortcomings have led wealthier Indians to find private solutions that protect them from threats such as air pollution and heat waves, but exclude the poor. The retreat of the rich limits the state’s ability to regulate the energy sector or address environmental degradation. Urpelainen examines India’s most severe environmental crises, considering how climate disruptions are affecting the country’s present and future. He analyzes India’s role in global environmental politics and assesses the prospects of achieving a more sustainable society. Useful and accessible, this book also offers pragmatic solutions to help overcome the constraints on effective energy and environmental policy.

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India is driving some of the most important trends in global energy markets—with vast environmental implications. As the country grows wealthier, Indians are buying more cars, air conditioners, plane tickets, and other goods that increase demand for fossil fuels. At the same time, the country still faces widespread poverty, and it struggles to address persistent environmental and energy-sector problems, from frequent power outages to a significant number of deaths linked to air pollution.Johannes Urpelainen provides an expert guide to India’s energy and environmental issues that incorporates both domestic and global perspectives. He details how unequal economic development and rapid population growth have brought the country to its current state: a potential engine of the world economy hampered by environmental hazards and energy poverty. Urpelainen argues that institutional shortcomings have led wealthier Indians to find private solutions that protect them from threats such as air pollution and heat waves, but exclude the poor. The retreat of the rich limits the state’s ability to regulate the energy sector or address environmental degradation. Urpelainen examines India’s most severe environmental crises, considering how climate disruptions are affecting the country’s present and future. He analyzes India’s role in global environmental politics and assesses the prospects of achieving a more sustainable society. Useful and accessible, this book also offers pragmatic solutions to help overcome the constraints on effective energy and environmental policy.

Read more less

In the past twenty-five years, a number of countries have made the transition to democracy. The support of international organizations is essential to success on this difficult path. Yet, despite extensive research into the relationship between democratic transitions and membership in international organizations, the mechanisms underlying the relationship remain unclear. With Organizing Democracy, Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen argue that leaders of transitional democracies often have to draw on the support of international organizations to provide the public goods and expertise needed to consolidate democratic rule. Looking at the Baltic states' accession to NATO, Poast and Urpelainen provide a compelling and statistically rigorous account of the sorts of support transitional democracies draw from international institutions. They also show that, in many cases, the leaders of new democracies must actually create new international organizations to better serve their needs, since they may not qualify for help from existing ones.

Read more less