The Paris Agreement: Climate Change, Solidarity, and Human Rights by Judith Blau (review)

This book attempts to address the pressing question of how we might meaningfully address the myriad challenges posed by global climate change (GCC hereafter). Blau's central thesis is that because climate is "collectively and globally shared," the only way to solve the problem is "through acting in solidarity" (7). In contrast to the cutthroat individualism characteristic of American values, Blau emphasizes the importance of recognizing the environment as part of a "collective commons." Focusing on the Paris Agreement as the most ambitious international effort to address GCC to date, this short book offers a succinct, readable overview of GCC and the framework of international human and environmental rights. The book is organized into ten short chapters (10–12 pp. each), though a quarter of this material (approximately 25 pp.) consists of "information boxes"—typically presented in bulleted lists (e.g., impacts and indicators of GCC).¹ As such, The Paris Agreement may be more appealing to an advanced undergraduate readership, perhaps as a supplementary text for environmental sociology, political sociology, and/or social movements courses.

Problems and contradictions notwithstanding, Blau contends that globalization increases our awareness of universal human equality and difference, thereby strengthening social solidarity and paving the way for transnational cooperation to combat climate change. In chapters one and ten, Blau further elaborates the importance of social solidarity as the foundation for effective transnational climate mitigation strategies. After summarizing international environmental governance since 1979 (chapter three), Blau turns to America's role as a leading greenhouse gas emitter. Chapter five, in particular, provides a substantive discussion of the paradox of American exceptionalism—"that what binds Americans together (as exceptionalists) are the very values that pull us apart (individualism)" (45). For Blau, the paradox of American exceptionalism explains why GCC denialism is so prevalent among Americans (more so than any other country). American exceptionalism also needs to be taken into account when confronting the nation's GCC policy lacuna. The remainder of the book provides an overview of environmental rights, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the environment as part of a "collective commons."

Blau's emphasis on the importance of social solidarity in relation to GCC mitigation is important. Unfortunately, the author's high expectations for meeting the Paris Agreement's goal of holding global warming below 2 degrees Celsius appears dated from the vantage point of the present (less than a year after the book's publication). This is especially so in light of the UN's Emissions Gap Report (2017), which assessed the current national mitigation efforts that comprise the Paris Agreement. The authors of the report conclude that the gap between current carbon-cutting pledges and reductions required is "alarmingly high." The report also warns that if the United States follows through on its promise to leave the Paris pact, then "the picture will become bleaker." To be sure, these findings were not disseminated until after the publication of Blau'sbook.

At the same time, however, one must recognize critically the speed of GCC, which continues to advance at an increasingly rapid pace—often more rapidly than societal, institutional, and/or individual responses to them can be formed. What makes The Paris Agreement less pertinent in this regard is the author's inattention to the economic imperative of capitalist production and the force this imperative exerts on all aspects of modern social relations (Dahms 2018). For Blau, the ideal and norms and values of social solidarity automatically facilitate international cooperation on GCC—as if material power (economic domination) and the normative aspects of social action (cooperation and solidarity) comprise two mutually exclusive dimensions of social life, which they do not. American social institutions have long since adapted to capital's environmentally destructive "growth imperative," modifying the personality structure accordingly. Blau's discussion of American exceptionalism indicates that the majority of Americans have identities that would resist the prospect of social solidarity with all means available. Yet...