Dr Noah Zucker [Office TBC]

This course is available on the BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Relations and Chinese, BSc in International Relations and History and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course has a limited number of places (it is capped).

There are no prerequisites, though some background knowledge of international political economy, such as that provided in IR206 International Political Economy, might be useful to students taking this course.

Why has climate change proven to be such a challenging issue for global governance? How will intensified climate disruptions and decarbonization transform countries' economies and politics? Who are the winners and losers of these transitions and how are they shaping climate governance today? This course will address these questions in a survey of the political economy of climate change. We will explore cutting-edge research on climate politics and critically analyze various theoretical concepts and models, assess the advantages and drawbacks of different empirical approaches, and draw connections to core debates in international political economy and political science. Students will gain familiarity with the frontier of climate politics scholarship, learn how to constructively critique academic work, and develop skills in designing and executing rigorous political economy research.

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

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce an outline of the summative climate policy proposal in the WT.

• Tamma Carleton and Solomon Hsiang. 2016. “Social and Economic Impacts of Climate.” Science 353(6304).
• Timothy Mitchell. 2011. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. New York: Verso.
• Robert Falkner. 2016. “The Paris Agreement and the New Logic of International Climate Politics.” International Affairs 92(5): 1107–1125.
• Scott Barrett. 2003. Environment and Statecraft: The Strategy of Environmental Treaty-Making. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Jeff Colgan, Jessica Green, and Thomas Hale. 2021. “Asset Revaluation and the Existential Politics of Climate Change.” International Organization 75(2): 586–610.
• Michael Bechtel and Kenneth Scheve. 2013. “Mass Support for Global Climate Agreements Depends on Institutional Design.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110(34): 13763–13768.
• Nikhar Gaikwad, Federica Genovese, and Dustin Tingley. 2022. “Creating Climate Coalitions: Mass Preferences for Compensating Vulnerability in the World’s Two Largest Democracies.” American Political Science Review 116(4): 1165–1183.
• Sabrina Arias and Christopher Blair. 2022. “Changing Tides: Public Attitudes on Climate Migration.” Journal of Politics 84(1): 560–567.

Essay (100%, 2500 words) in the ST.