Climate is difficult for action on environment

IRELAND’S fifth attempt at a climate bill is passing tortuously through the Oireachtas. The four aborted attempts reflect the failure of Irish politics to grapple with the major global problem of the 21st century. Few countries have passed significant such legislation: there is a lack of public enthusiasm for unilateral action when short-term economic issues dominate the political agenda. Paul Harris’s book, What’s Wrong with Climate Politics and How to Fix It, encapsulates the difficulties of reconciling local, national and international interests in resolving the stalemate in global climate negotiations.

It seems contorted to link climate politics to the 17th century peace treaty that ended the Thirty Years War of religion in Europe. But the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, is the root of the modern nation state as the sovereign negotiating body for its subjects. Harris has identified this as the basis for the international logjam in the climate negotiations of today.