Due to the laborious climate negotiations of the past fifteen years, the meagre success in combating climate change and the continuous rise in CO₂ emissions, hopes of far-reaching climate protection cannot be based on international politics alone. The instruments adopted at that level are insufficient in terms of both effectiveness and range to deal with the complex problem of climate change. This volume identifies the blind spots of international climate policy from various perspectives and analyses climate change as a profound crisis of social development. This permits a fresh look at the multi-layered problem structure of climate change, encompassing the political-economic, socio-cultural and socio-ecological dimensions.