Climate Governance: Fostering a Joint Research Program across the Social Sciences

Elin Lerum Boasson is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo. Her research focuses on climate and energy governance, with particular attention to cross-national variation in policy development and the roles of business actors, public institutions, political leadership, and EU governance. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, Freie Universität Berlin, and Harvard University. Boasson is a Lead Author of the Seventh Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with responsibility for national climate policies and governance. She is also affiliated with CICERO Center for International Climate Research and has led several major international research initiatives on climate governance and renewable energy policy.

Development of robust and cumulative knowledge about climate governance for net-zero emissions requires more dialogue and cross-fertilization across the social sciences. While physical climate science is a collaborative venture, mobilizing a broad array of natural science disciplines, research on climate change mitigation is fragmented across the social sciences: economists assess climate policy effectiveness, political scientists assess climate politics, legal scholars study climate litigation and organizational and management scholars’ study corporate climate governance. Recently, political scientists and legal scholars have shifted from a rather limited focus on climate policy instruments, towards climate governance. This creates new opportunities for fruitful scientific dialogue with organizational and management scholars. In this talk, Boasson will specify differences and similarities across the disciplines involved, present suggestions that can help us to overcome these, and show how a more integrated social science research program on climate governance can facilitate development of more effective climate governance for net-zero emissions.

Alter Point: The Business of Business is Business - And Why That is Great for the Climate

Mattias Goldmann was knighted by the French President for his role in engaging the business sector in developing the Paris Agreement, with a similar role in the development of Sweden’s climate legislation and as CEO of the Swedish 2030-secretariat, representing more than 100 companies and trade organizations in developing more stringent climate policies - all for the sake of business.

In this keynote, Goldmann takes issue with the - according to him - erroneous belief that businesses should engage in climate mitigation for the benefit of the society, insisting that it is simply good for business.

Encountering Think Tanks

Jamie Peck is currently a Fellow at SCAS and University Killam Professor and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of British Columbia. An internationally distinguished scholar in economic geography and institutional political economy, his research has significantly shaped debates on neoliberalisation, policy mobility, market governance, and the circulation of policy ideas through expert networks.

In his talk, Peck will engage with the role of think tanks and other policy intermediaries in the production, circulation, and legitimation of governing ideas. Drawing on research on policy mobilities and market-making, the lecture considers how expert networks contribute to shaping contemporary modes of governance and future-oriented policy agendas.