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The capacity of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to encourage public engagement with climate protection is analysed through a conceptual framework focused on six advocacy functions: issue framing, knowledge generation and dissemination, attribution of responsibility, lobbying, public mobilisation and agenda setting. This framework is used to organise and interpret the results of a fieldwork study of environmental NGOs, conducted in France, Germany and the UK. Key findings include the importance of the cross-linkage of climate with other categories of issue, NGO stress on knowledge as a precursor to action, a 'politics of accountability' in which the attribution of responsibility paves the way for making political demands, a preference for multi-layered lobbying, where process can be as important as product, and the need to adjust NGO mobilisation and agenda setting strategies in the aftermath of the 2009 Copenhagen negotiations and the financial crisis.

"Bringing together contributions from leading researchers, this volume reflects on the political, institutional and social factors that have shaped the recent expansion of wind energy, and to consider what lessons this experience may provide for the future expansion of other renewable technologies"--

This book explains the development paths taken by the wind power sector in Denmark, Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom. It explores how wind power has been promoted, and critically reviews public policies to support it. It analyses the economic and environmental implications of its integration into the electricity supply industry, whilst considering issues of planning and social acceptance, and exploring why wind power has been contested.

The practice of "technological forcing," understood as policy designed to accelerate technological innovation for the purposes of environmental protection, was pioneered in the USA during the 1970s and continued in Europe with feed-in tariffs for renewable energy and the emissions trading scheme. In order to draw lessons for climate policy, the article tests the capacity of "technological forcing" to translate ecological modernization theory into effective policy and practice, by providing analysis of three case studies. It argues that ambitious climate policies require not only technical proficiency in policy design, but also greater acknowledgment of the need to achieve structural change in major industrial sectors. It concludes that technology-based policies need to be accompanied by economic and political strategies to counteract incumbent resistance, and delineates potential means to do so.

Analysing transatlantic relations from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (KP) to the 2009 Copenhagen accord, the article identifies underlying explanations for the divergences between the EU and US during international climate negotiations. It traces how a climate divide opened between the EU and the US in the early 2000s, involving confrontation over the implementation of the KP. However, a phase of EU-US rapprochement closed the climate gap in the late 2000s, leading to common positions during the 2009 COP-15 negotiations. Yet the Copenhagen Accord served to reinforce American influence, while undermining the coherence and credibility of the European stance. This led to multiple rifts in the post-Copenhagen landscape concerning climate treaty architecture, policy implementation and international relationships, jeopardising the success of future negotiations. Adapted from the source document.

La politique du climat de la France: entre intérêt national et solidarité mondiale? Par rapport à la politique du climat de la France, cet article analyse l'évolution des rapports entre la construction de l'intérêt national et les principes de solidarité mondiale exprimés dans la Convention cadre sur le changement climatique de l'ONU de 1992. L'article argumente que la France a développé un modèle spécifique de politique du climat qui a démontré son efficacité par une réduction modeste mais réelle des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Mais face aux défis renouvelés du climat, vers la fin des années 2000 les décideurs français vacillaient entre deux options, à savoir (a) une révision peu ambitieuse du modèle national sous l'empreinte d'une construction séculaire de l'intérêt national (conçu en termes de compétitivité économique à court terme), ou (b) un remaniement profond du modèle sous l'impulsion des principes de solidarité mondiale. En guise de conclusion, l'article fait valoir que les pouvoirs publics ont effectivement proposé des mesures ambitieuses mais se sont abstenus de leur mise en œuvre, en conséquence de la persistance de cette construction séculaire de l'intérêt national mais aussi à cause des balbutiements du régime international du climat entre le protocole de Kyoto de 1997 et l'accord de Copenhague de 2009.