Practices of Climate Diplomacy and Uneven Policy Responses on Climate Change and Human Mobility
Abstract
Climate change is an issue area being worked on by states both at home and abroad. However, disparities often exist between the picture painted by climate diplomacy and domestic policy measures, be it in the level of priority afforded to climate action, or the integration of climate concerns across different policy silos. A key area of work for climate diplomacy is human mobility in the context of climate change, which brings into stark relief the cross-border reach of climate change impacts and is billed as one of the biggest societal challenges of climate change. However, little is known about the climate diplomatic practices of states in individual European states in relation to human mobility, and in turn how these diplomatic efforts tally with domestic climate action. Are states expending the same level of effort getting their own houses in order and planning for a transformative future? Or is a smokescreen of concern being erected while “building scaffolding for the status quo”? Against this background, this project will undertake comparative case studies of five European states (Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway) in order to answer the following overarching research question: How are nation-states developing practices of international climate diplomacy in relation to climate change and human mobility and to what extent do these align or discord with their practices at the state level?
keywords Climate change Climate diplomacy Human mobility Europe Climate policy