The Geopolitics of Climate Change

Abstract This article explains the ways in which climate change is a geopolitical problem. It discusses the potential ramifications of the impacts of climate change on security, and argues that predictions of international conflicts arising from climate change are premature. It explains the spatial politics of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through an overview of the positions of the main actors in negotiations on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and argues that these positions cannot be understood merely as the product of rational choices made by disembodied states. It concludes by advocating for a subaltern and class‐based view of climate geopolitics that stresses the way it is a local and social problem as much as it is a global environmental problem.