Peter Martin has an excerpt from the Garnuat Report on Climate Change. One of the problems with climate change is that it is a global, or planetary issue. Our major form of political organization currently is nationalism which is too small to establish a global response as the tragedy of the commons is almost ensured to occur short of some massive leap in human morality.
The alternative is to establish a global government. This is repugnant to nationalism but also the principle of limited government. Most of the modern democratic structures come out of the English fear of executive tyranny. A planetary government which could coerce climate change policies on the planet will not happen, and rightfully so.
Nationalism is a military form of political organization that came out of the 18th century European wars. The European states of the time were constantly warring in an environment that demanded increasing levels of capitalistic investment. The British established a political, social and economic form of organization that could sustain a dominating Navy. The French and Prussians took different organizational structures to establish powerful continental armies. In the case of the French their political and economic organization was sufficient to challenge, though never topple, the British Navy.
Even today the political legitimacy for a nation-state to establish a military is taken for granted. We also consider warfare between nation-states legitimate, if unacceptable and repugnant. Nationalism has arisen out of the European militaristic order.
One advantage to nationalism is that the capital intensive demands of a competitive military have meant that political, economic and social organization have achieved economies of scale. One of the American dares to the Soviet Union was an acceleration of military spending. While both were very large nations and powerful political units, the American ability to scale helped convince the Soviets that their system was inefficient and unsustainable.
It is possible that a nation-state response to climate change will achieve some positive outcomes. The Garnaut report argues for a market based approach which minimises the state involvement in the process and seeks to remove the "links between economic activity and greenhouse gas emissions" through a sustainable process. I suspect there will be first-adopter benefits as well that will mean Australian science, engineering and organisational technologies will become very exportable and in demand.
