ABSTRACT
The history of human civilization has been strongly influenced by climatic events. For years now, a growing body of scientific work has been analysing in detail nature’s role in global history. From the ice ages to the ‘medieval climate optimum’ around the first millennium, changes in temperature have had an undeniable effect on how people interacted within as well as between specific region. The history of energy and climate governance has been written more by international and transnational actors than by regional ones. From an interregional perspective, it is interesting to note that during this time regional cooperation or diffusion only played a minor role, with some regional leadership emerging in the United States and then in Europe. Climate and energy policies are currently being debated, regulated, and implemented in various transregional fora. After the failure of the climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009, policy-makers and some scholars argued that small clubs of countries of willing should be set up.
