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Dr Michael Lerner

This course is available on the MSc in Political Science (Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics), MSc in Political Science (Global Politics), MSc in Political Science (Political Science and Political Economy), MSc in Public Policy and Administration and MSc in Regulation. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access) and demand is typically very high. This course is capped at 2 groups.

A basic understanding of the physical science of climate change would be advantageous.

This course introduces students to the policy interventions and underlying political dynamics that shape the pace and direction of efforts to mitigate climate change and improve sustainability. Students will unpack the conceptual foundations of climate politics, assess climate and sustainability problems across a variety of practical cases, and learn to prescribe and justify policy interventions to accelerate sustainability transitions.

A unifying theme of the course will be its frequent attention to the political economy of climate (in)action. Specific topics include carbon lock-in; climate advocacy and obstruction; environmental authoritarianism; corporate climate governance; national climate institutions; just transition agreements; energy subsidies and carbon pricing; and geoengineering. The case studies in this course focus primarily, but not exclusively, on domestic environmental politics in advanced industrialized democracies.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the WT.

There will be a reading week in Week 6 of the Winter Term.

Students will be expected to produce 1 piece of coursework in the WT.

• Bernstein, Steven, and Matthew Hoffmann. “Climate politics, metaphors and the fractal carbon trap.” Nature Climate Change 9.12 (2019): 919-925.
• Seto, Karen C., et al. “Carbon lock-in: Types, causes, and policy implications.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 41 (2016): 425-452.
• Parris, Thomas M., and Robert W. Kates. “Characterizing a sustainability transition: Goals, targets, trends, and driving forces.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100.14 (2003): 8068-8073.
• Meckling, Jonas. “Oppose, Support, or Hedge? Distributional Effects, Regulatory Pressure, and Business Strategy in Environmental Politics.” Global Environmental Politics 15.2 (2015): 19-37.
• Stroup, Sarah S., and Wendy H. Wong. The Authority Trap. Cornell University Press (2017). Chapter 1.
• Finnegan, Jared J. “Institutions, climate change, and the foundations of long-term policymaking.” Comparative Political Studies (2022).
• Baldwin, Elizabeth, Sanya Carley, and Sean Nicholson-Crotty. “Why do countries emulate each other’s policies? A global study of renewable energy policy diffusion.” World Development 120 (2019): 29-45.
• Stokes, Leah C. Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States. Oxford University Press (2020). Chapter 1.

Video (20%) in the WT.
Policy report (80%) in the ST.

Students will create up to two 4–6 minute video blog posts interpreting a recent event through the lens of course material (one must be uploaded in the first half of term, and one in the second half of term), of which one will be submitted for assessment.

The assessed policy report will have a word limit of 3000 words.