New Thinking: Climate Scenarios w/ Ben Clift and Caroline Kuzemko
Despite decades of climate action efforts, emissions rise. Experts discuss flawed models, policy impacts, and IPE insights on climate mitigation.
Despite decades of public knowledge about climate change and well-established international governance institutions designed to facilitate global energy transition, emissions continue to rise as climate breakdown intensifies. Why is climate modeling so important and what are technocrats getting wrong? What are the assumptions underlying these models of future climate scenarios and how do they misinform policy makers about the true costs of the climate (in)action? How can a constructivist approach to international political economy (IPE) help us understand the contestation the occurs within and between institutions on questions of climate mitigation?
Professor Ben Clift is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick and Dr Caroline Kuzemko is a Reader in International Political Economy also at the University of Warwick. They join Dr Remi Edwards to discuss their recent paper The social construction of sustainable futures: how models and scenarios limit climate mitigation possibilities (2024).
Acronyms used in this podcast:
- IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- UNFCCC - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- COP - Conference of the Parties
- IAM - Integrated assessment models
- OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- IMF - International Monetary Fund
Credits
- Chris Saltmarsh, Postgraduate Researcher at the University of Sheffield
- Remi Edwards, Research and Impact Associate at SPERI
- Frank Maracchione, PhD Research Student at the University of Sheffield
- Emma Mahoney, PhD Candidate at the University of Sheffield
- Dillon Wamsley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at SPERI
- Andrew Hindmoor, Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield and Co-Director at SPERI
- Professor Ben Clift, Professor of Political Econom at the University of Warwick
- Dr Caroline Kuzemko, Reader in International Political Economy at the University of Warwick
