Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - Environmental Policy, grade: 1,0, University of Wroclaw, language: English, abstract: Global warming and the protection of the environment have been a rising topic on the political agenda for more more than two decades. However, the progress necessary to avoid an environmental catastrophy hasn't been made yet - often due to high transaction costs for private corporations. This piece elaborates the costs of environmental protection as an explanation for the lack of environmental protection in an international context.