Climate Change Leadership

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COP26 Live: Nettonollutsläpp 2070 kan röra om i grytan

2 November 2021 /

-Jag känner att det här var en ganska bra dag, en minst sagt hygglig start. Det behövdes!

Orden kommer från Mikael Karlsson, docent i miljövetenskap på Uppsala universitet, som är på plats i Glasgow. När han intervjuas av SvD via en skakig telefonlina har det gått en dryg halvtimme sedan det Mikael Karlsson ser som dagens höjdpunkt.

Läs mer på SvD

Mikael Karlsson is pleased with India’s announcement to be Net Zero by 2070. This is a significant goal and can inspire other world leaders to act more ambitiously, he says. Compared to other countries this may seem distant in the future, but India is a developing country and relative to developed countries India can be seen as particularly ambitious.

Läs mer om COP26

Klimataktionerna kan motverka sitt eget syfte

2 November 2021 /

Daniel Lindvall kommenterar pågående klimataktioner för SVT

English summary:

Direct action, such as those taken by climate activists at Swedish airports over the past few days, may have unintended consequences, not least regarding public sentiment. Daniel Lindvall, researcher at CCL, is interested in democracy and leadership and suggests that such strong direct action may alienate those who were otherwise sympathetic to the cause. In this case the action impacts all, even sympathisers. Daniel Lindvall points to Greta Thunberg as using a more successful method of direct action and who has mobilsed millions around the globe in her school strike for climate action.

Läs mer om COP26

Är Glasgow verkligen den bästa sista chansen för klimatet?

1 November 2021 /

Daniel Lindvall skriver om betydelsen av globala avtal för klimatpolitiken i Expressen Kultur

Daniel Lindvall argues that the climate crisis is a global tragedy, but to deal with it we do not have to wait for a global consensus. If China, the United States and various oil and gas nations are not ready for action, other states, regions and cities should form a coalition of the willing and take the lead. They could introduce a common EU emissions trading scheme, while phasing out fossil fuels, banning new oil and gas exploration and setting a deadline for coal use. The best last chance for the climate is simply that each of us begins to act.

Vad handlar klimatmötet i Glasgow om?

COP26 Live: Nordics Lagging Behind?

1 November 2021 /

During our event today the image of Swedish and Nordic Climate Leadership shimmered in the face of scientific/ political/ and activist critique. What is the Nordic reputation? Is there truth behind this image? Watch a recording of the event below and share your thoughts @CCLUPPSALA.

What makes good Climate Leadership?

According to Emma Weisner, Centerpartiet Swedish MEP, it is “Unity, Ambition and Results“. Yet are we fulfilling this idea of Nordic Climate Leadership? As Mikael Karlsson indicates, to what extent can we unify when not all Nordics are in the EU? Can we consider ourselves leaders if, as in Sweden, we only account for a third of our emissions? (according to climate activist Anton Foley) Consumption a key issue for Denmark according to Nadia, a Danish Youth Delegate. Yet all this talk of urgency and action without thinking is very problematic for Bernt Nordman, WWF Finland, who argues for investment in to better understanding of the whole picture.

Key concerns – what is sustainable use of forests in transitioning away from fossil fuels? For how long can we ignore the subsidies to fossil fuels? Denmark really needs to look at their pork consumption. And what is this talk about fossil free steel?

Read our full thread below:

We Don’t Have Time is streaming the Nordic Pavilion events throughout COP26
Climate Change Leadership at COP26
Read more about CCL at COP26

Incumbency and the Future in Climate Action Collaborations

30 October 2021 /

What roles do large organisations play in climate action collaborations? What futures become possible? What does it mean for realising Sweden’s climate goals?

Fossilfree Sweden had their Fossil Free Competitive conference earlier this week where they celebrated the follow up on their 22 roadmaps. The conclusion was made that industries had ramped up their efforts for emissions reduction, but that these still did not meet the required pace for transitioning in line with Sweden’s goal to be Net Zero by 2045 (read more here).

You can watch the conference in full here:

Incumbency Leadership: A challenge for transforming the future?

The roadmaps have been discussed in terms of futures orientations before and it was concluded in a recent study that the “Techno-Optimist” and “Ecological Mordernisation” perceptions of the future were far more popular for political parties and industry leaders alike (read more here). More radical imaginaries, such as “Systems Change” and “Technological Disruption” were far less common. Their findings further indicate how more ambitious goals for climate action are stilted by a difficulty envisioning a future beyond fossil-dependence, let alone radically transformed futures beyond capitalism.

The idea of incumbent agenda-setting climate action, particularly under such a term as “Fossil Free Competitiveness”, demands looking at what futures are being produced through these mechanisms. Is this simply a competition between industries to become climate change leaders and realise Sweden’s Net Zero Future by 2045? Or is there something more to be inferred by roadmaps towards realising desirable incumbent futures?

Fossil Free Roadmaps: calculating wider impacts, benefits and costs?

Beyond the futures narratives and the socio-political implications of these roadmaps, these roadmaps should also be discussed in terms of wider societal costs and impacts. What will jobs look like in the future? Is there a Swedish workforce with the skills and competences needed for these transitioned industries? What infrastructure development is required and at what pace? How might the Swedish public respond to these changes – is this viable?

Watch this space!

COP: The Inside Story, with Isabel Baudish

30 October 2021 /

Isabel Baudish, Coordinator of Zennström Professorship in Climate Change Leadership, is a member of the newly launched independent podcast Signal Switch. Ahead of COP26 they have released a 2-part special that takes a deep dive exploration of the COP history and process, particularly in relationship to Climate Justice. The episode explores why COPs, as challenging, overwhelming and problematic as they are, they still remain the key way to respond to climate change.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2IeVmI5DUw4uk10goXzCxL?si=OoKKi7MWT1i9oPUZ_gucow&nd=1&utm_medium=organic&product=open&%24full_url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fepisode%2F2IeVmI5DUw4uk10goXzCxL%3Fsi%3DOoKKi7MWT1i9oPUZ_gucow&feature=organic&_branch_match_id=872230601014911771&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA72NUWvCMBzEP0362DaJ1XZQRBRBVPRhurGXENO0DY35hzShbp9%2BUdhXGNzBcceP672341uWjRa8ar9Tbm2qlRmypXXQBOFrsNIkiMzaoDULTtf9E0F0hcg26jmnf7SAe6ykVSM0Miayk9f7rthcplkYcN7B58%2F6cUB0OypENyfY79Xi%2BPGOVQXnyxfrgoDp9cW1vnEx%2FMcfInPTxBUnreQ%2BOFmD67hRImHs5rgRPWs1TEw1dVXSHOclLasCF9Gk%2BgU5kfpmPwEAAA%3D%3D

Follow Isabel Baudish at COP26 in Glasgow along with the rest of Climate Change Leadership on twitter or our blog as we report back live!

Climate Change Leadership at COP26

Climate Change Denial: A Workshop at COP26

27 October 2021 /

The academics from Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University will host a workshop at the Nordic Pavillion about ways to engage with – or disengage from – climate denial debates. Science denial is a serious bottleneck for climate policymaking. The aim of this workshop is to more fully describe climate denial and develop counteractive strategies with researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders.

Image mapping how science denial plays a role in science and policy delay in Karlsson’s 2020 paper. Read more here

A transdisciplinary workshop at COP26

We are delighted to have the opportunity to work through the questions of denial together with colleagues from across the Nordics to understand how the tricky information landscape can be worked with in order to transcend denial and misinformation during public discussion and debate. It a growing concern here within Uppsala University that there is a challenge engaging the public online and in person with questions about climate change. We see this very often, for example, in comments below our social media posts about climate science. This is not an isolated concern, however, with many actors involved in the conversation around the world about the role of social media in the age of information and misinformation saturation. We will host this workshop at the global meeting for climate negotiations in order to explore new ways of working through this challenge.

What can we scientists do?

One of the goals in post-graduate education is to equip young academics with the skills to contribute their scientific output in societal development and debate. But how to do so in a world of polarising information and misinformation? Our workshop will pilot a method for developing counteractive strategies with colleagues from across the Nordics and provide them the opportunity to pose their questions, to share their practises and to deepen their understandings of the ways in which denial can limit public debate. Together with policymakers and other stakeholders we anticipate a discussion that will develop concrete proposals for action and deepened understandings of the experiences of denial across the public sector. We will asses this method with feedback from participants at COP26 and then follow this up with a workshop at Uppsala University.

You can read more about the work of Mikael Karlsson and Science Denial here. At Uppsala University we also have scholars engaging with this and related issues at the EU level: Conspiracy in Europe, and Responding to Disinformation in the EU.

Contact Us

Science communication and climate change misinformation is an area of key concern for us at Climate Change Leadership. We welcome your reflections and thoughts, so please do not hesitate to connect with us about our future work in this area and questions for this workshop in particular! You can tweet @CCLUPPSALA or email laila.mendy@geo.uu.se

Climate Change Leadership at COP26

Democracies that fail to act on climate change face ‘existential’ threat

26 October 2021 /

Daniel Lindvall is interviewed by Thomson Reuters News foundation. Read the full article here.

The interview is about a new paper Daniel has written with IDEA about “Democracy and the Challenges of Climate Change“.

Daniel Lindvall presented his paper at the IDEA webinar earlier this week, where the findings indicate that democratic countries’ failures to act on climate change can lead towards an existential threat to their democratic institutions. New ways to engage the public with democratic participation in climate change policy development is key to counter these risks. As Daniel Lindvall claims, scientists and scientific expertise do not hold all the answers and experiences and perspectives from the public can be used in the democratic process. You can watch the IDEA webinar here: https://www.idea.int/news-media/events/democracy-and-challenges-climate-change

Klimatkrisen, omställningen och ”lömska” problem

21 October 2021 /

Daniel Lindvall skriver om klimatkrisen, omställningen och lömskla problem för Mänsklig säkerhet. FN:s klimatpanel har sedan 1990 rapporterat om allvarliga konsekvenser som kan följa av global uppvärmning och framhållit vikten av minskade utsläpp. Att det idag görs för lite beror både på aktivt motstånd och att problemen är mångfacetterade och komplexa, rent av ”lömska”. Men komplexiteten får inte hindra nödvändig handling, vilket bäst säkras i öppna demokratiska system där felsteg fortlöpande kan korrigeras.

Artikel om framtida generationers rättigheter

21 October 2021 /

Daniel Lindvall, forskare i Klimatledarskap, har skrivit artikeln Demokratin inför klimatkrisen. Kan framtida generationers fri- och rättigheter säkras?, för kommitten Demokratin 100 års framåtblickande antologi om Sveriges demokrati och dess olika aspekter. Läs artikeln här

Artikeln beskriver hur demokratins fortlevnad är nära förbunden med dess förmåga att snabbt få ner utsläppen av växthusgaser och att han[1]tera olika klimatkonsekvenser. Att värna demokratin är också att värna om klimatet och framtiden. Vi har redan fått känna på jordens reaktioner på människans utsläpp av växthusgaser – värmeböljor, skogsbränder och översvämningar. Detta i kombination med stigande havsnivåer och förlusten av biolo[1]gisk mångfald kommer att påverka hela vårt samhällssystem och vår existens. Det handlar bland annat om en generations[1]överskridande orättvisa, men också om hur demokratin kan användas för ett långsiktigt beslutsfattande.

Democracy and the Challenges of Climate Change

20 October 2021 /

Daniel Lindvall, researcher at Climate Change Leadership, is today publishing the Discussion paper Democracy and the Challenges of Climate Change, for International IDEA. You can read the full paper here.

The paper discussed correlation between climate change and democratic development. Certain climate consequences, as for example scarcity of food or rising food prices, are known to lead to social unrest and political instability and may lead to democratic breakdown, particularly in fragile democracies with weak state institutions. Other climate related emergency situations may have positive effects for democracy, bringing people together and providing opportunities for regime change, but they could also be used as an excuse for autocratic or hybrid regimes to curtail democratic freedoms. 

The paper also present research on the weaknesses and strengths of democracy in dealing with the climate crisis. It argues that democratic states are generally performing better on environment protection policies and climate action than autocratic states. However, factors such as the level of corruption and the size of the fossil fuel industry are affecting the climate performance negatively.

Generally speaking, the outcome of the climate crisis will depend on whether democracies can drastically reduce their carbon footprints in the coming years. Climate change poses a challenging test for democracies’ ability to cooperate and confront highly complex global challenges. In conclusion, democracies need to formulate adequate and ambitious policy responses to climate change for democracy to remain a legitimate and credible political system for young people and future generations.

The report will be discussed at a webinar on 26 October, at which Dr Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary-General, International IDEA, Jan Wahlberg, the Finnish Climate Change Ambassador, Dr Julia Leininger, German Development Institute, & Member of International IDEA’s Board of Advisers, and Ms Elizabeth Wathuti, Founder of Green Generation Initiative and sustainability analyst at Sustainable Square, Kenya, will participate. Register for the webinar here

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