ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, climate change has moved from being a minor, mostly scientific matter in the affairs of states to being the most prominent issue in global environmental politics. It is now a major concern of governments, international organizations, industry, nongovernmental organizations, and a growing number of people around the world. As climate change has become better understood and more prominent in the media and public discourse, so too have predictions of its adverse impacts on nature and societies. Indeed, many of the effects are being felt today. Governments have negotiated agreements to study climate change and, in the case of many developed countries, to start limiting the pollution that causes it. However, the responses of states to the problem have failed to keep up with the increasing pace of climate change; they are grossly inadequate.
