In this first chapter, the emergent complexity of problems in environmental and climate policy is raised and summarised. These issues are described as ‘wicked’: the process of solving them coincides with the scientific process of understanding their nature and the internal mechanisms driving them. While in many scientific areas of enquiry, statistics can be accumulated using repeated experiments, this is not possible here, and moreover, each time an attempt is made to solve an environmental problem with a chosen policy strategy, the problem typically transforms into something new. The case is made why optimisation approaches are fundamentally flawed in analysing environmental problems, as they assume the access and availability of knowledge and data by analysts that is not realistic. This introductory chapter motivates the various issues raised and discussed throughout this book.