ABSTRACT
Donald Trump’s announcement that the US would withdraw from the Paris Agreement fuelled the impression that politics, including climate politics, has entered a post-factual or post-truth phase. Opposing the climate agreement is not an expression of deviating political conviction but is frequently depicted as denying the reality of a changing climate as discovered and reported by the most capable and renowned scientific experts. The urgency of the problem and the extraordinary dangers associated with climate change seems to be ringing in a ‘post political phase’ in international climate politics. This contribution focuses on the complex and delicate interplay between (expert) knowledge and decision-making, thus investigating the reasons and the possible consequences of an uneasiness with democracies in the era of anthropogenic climate change. It argues that climate change remains an essentially political issue; an issue, however, that poses extraordinary dangers for the planet and democracies alike.
