Introduction

Abstract

Nowadays, one of the most important issues crossing international relations with economics is climate change. “Environmental issues cut across a range of topics, namely security and economics, two areas of major importance to the state” (Pereira, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 58(1):194, 2015). Indeed, the editors of this book realized that this topic is still receiving too little attention from the two scientific areas. The aim of this book from the outset is therefore to understand the implications of climate change on several questions pertaining to economics and international relations fields and how climate change could jeopardize the overall development of the design of the international system, as we have known until the present. Truly, the main subject of concern to international relations and economics is governance, namely, good governance, and how it affects power to maximize state interests and resources in order to obtain quality of life for individuals. The rational choices taken by sovereign states concerning environmental issues and policy decisions on climate change lead to good or bad outcomes for all human beings, unlike decisions on internal policies that affect only the state’s citizens themselves.