Convergence

Climate Change and Geopolitical Futures

Duraid Jalili author Maeve Ryan author Hillary Briffa author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Edinburgh University Press

Publishing:31st Jul '26

£80.00

This title is due to be published on 31st July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

This hardback is available in another edition too:

Convergence cover

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.

Trying to think through the impacts of climate change in a geopolitically turbulent world can feel so overwhelming as to discourage positive action. Jalili, Briffa, and Ryan cut through that paralysis with remarkable precision and imagination. Convergence is clear-eyed about current trends and risks, yet ambitious about the alternatives that are possible. -- Lawrence Freedman, King's College London
This brilliant, imaginative and highly original take on the politics of climate change recognizes that addressing this huge challenge is more about the management of an uncertain future than grand problem-solving. The authors show this by skilfully presenting alternative futures across a range of policy areas and so circumvent the typical over-reliance on the simplistic alarmism of tipping points, resource wars and mass flows of environmental refugees. -- Peter Hough, Middlesex University London
This book provides a much-needed exploration of climate futures, including the assumptions underpinning imagined scenarios of collapse or constructive realignment. The authors make a compelling case for recognising our own capacity to shape our future world. -- Matt McDonald, University of Queensland

ISBN: 9781788219389

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

192 pages