Climate Policies in a Changing World Context: Is a Paradigm Shift Needed?

Events like the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in September 2008, the failure of the Copenhagen climate conference as well as the Fukushima accident are reasons for the special issue of the journal "Climate Policy" to ask: "Is a paradigm shift needed?". The authors are members of the International Research Network for Low Carbon Societies (LCS-RNet). This Climate Policy Special Issue highlights key contributions and insights from the 2nd and 3rd Annual Workshops of the Network, held in 2010 and 2011 in Berlin and Paris, respectively. Although the insights are varied, there is a common theme - the need to link the policies necessary to launch a long-run transition towards a LCS with shorter-term concerns about poverty alleviation, jobs, and the protection of welfare benefits.

There is free access to the editorial "Climate policies in a changing world context: is aparadigm shift needed?" (by Jim Skea, Jean-Charles Hourcade and Stefan Lechtenböhmer) at the Climate Policy website.