Convergence : Climate Change and Geopolitical Futures

Competing visions of the future are at the heart of debates on climate change. In navigating between entrenched geopolitical logics and transformative possibilities, this book provides readers with a vocabulary and framework for assessing climate risk rooted in current realities but not limited by them.

Competing visions of the future are at the heart of debates on climate change. The daunting scale and characteristics of climate risks have led to terrifying prophesies of societal breakdown and escalating geopolitical flashpoints. Although these cannot be ignored, the same characteristics can intersect to heighten the potential for "convergence points", in which cooperation and transformation are catalysed by shared risks and recognition of mutual vulnerability. In navigating between entrenched geopolitical logics and transformative possibilities, this book provides readers with a vocabulary and a framework for assessing climate risk in ways that are both critical and creative; rooted in current structures but not limited by them. Thinking about climate futures, the authors show, means embracing radically different possibilities and seeing the world as it is (and the forces that have produced present realities), while remaining open to the possibility of it becoming otherwise.