To avoid uncontrolled climate change, greenhouse gas emissions will have to be brought under control by major emitters outside the affluent West. The authors investigate the political obstacles in BRIC countries and what their governments could do to strengthen climate policies without incurring serious political damage.

This study presents, for the first time, a synoptic picture of the future directions in which public policy in EU countries is likely to move based on using contemporary theories of policy-making to deduce the implications for public policy of major long-term technological, economic, environmental and social trends.