ABSTRACT
Climate is a collective good affected by both natural and human influences. Even if the importance of human influences relative to natural cycles of change is a matter for debate, scientific evidence is gradually making it clear that human-induced climate change impacts have now begun to show in natural ecosystems. Political debate increasingly deals with how to change individual human behaviour and socio-economic processes and activities in order to avoid climate change reaching magnitudes beyond the resilience of ecological systems and the stability of societal systems. At the same time, the durability of historical, present and projected emissions of greenhouse gases into the biosphere makes it clear that ‘climate stability’ is not a realistic objective for climate policy. A more realistic view of climate politics is one of multilevel action aimed at keeping the impact of human activities on climate variations within limits of ecological, social and economic resilience.
