The International Climate Regime and its Driving-Forces: Obstacles and Chances on the Way to a Global Response to the Problem of Climate Change

Ben Witthaus, born in Duisburg in 1982, got his senior high school certificate in Mülheim an der Ruhr and thereafter started his dual B.A. programme in the fields of politics and economics at the Ruhr-University in Bochum. A first connection to this book’s topic was already established by specializing on resource economics. During his B.A. studies the author further not only spent one year at the well-respected International College of Management Sydney but also got a deeper understanding on the political day-to-day business through his temporary work at the German Bundestag, before finally successfully writing his thesis questioning ’Turkey’s perspectives of joining the European Union＂. In the end of 2008, Witthaus was granted admission to start the intercultural and interdisciplinary master’s programme ’European Culture and Economy＂ which he completed one half each in Bochum and at the University de les Illes Baleares in Palma. At the centre of this programme stood the study of the convergence and divergence of the European social, cultural, and economic area in a comparative perspective. The final study excursion to Brussels concluding the master’s programme dealt with the role of the European Union within the international climate regime and contained the dialogue with numerous high-ranked experts on this issue. Thereby the author’s interest regarding the driving-forces of the international climate regime was triggered and the initial point for this study created.