Transforming Climate Change Governance

A roundtable discussion with climate change scholars from law, ethics and political science for a conversation on where we are, the most acute challenges and possible ways ahead.

Climate change presents enormous governance challenges, both with regard to mitigation and adaptation. The impotency of political decision-makers to effectively deal with challenges posed by climate change - globally, nationally and sub-nationally - is not only about political will. The very structure of the problems - the interlinked ecological, regulatory and social complexity combined with the need for costly action to be taken here and now for the benefit not only of ourselves, but for people far away and not yet born - present great challenges for our political decision-making structures. The way the climate problem is deeply interwoven with the need for energy, and thus affects the very core of modern economies and the predominant development models of contemporary societies, makes it particularly challenging politically, placing it at odds with dominant social and political interest and powers. This is true in advanced democracies as well as in the developing world, and concerned critics are asking if we need to give up or restrict democracy in order to enable decisive collective action in the face of devastation.

There is an urgent need to develop decision-making processes and governing structures that can enable transformations to a sustainable society - and for democrats in particular, there is a need for systematic efforts understand how democratic decision-making processes and governing structures can be developed, strengthened and bounded to enable transformations to a sustainable society. This round table brings together climate change scholars from law, ethics and political science for a conversation on where we are, the most acute challenges and possible ways ahead.

 Anita Halvorsen (University of Denver) will provide an introduction with a talk on "Transforming Climate Change Governance". A roundtable discussion with the following participants will follow:

Peter Burnell (University of Warwick)

Des Gasper (International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague- ISS) 

Anita Halvorsen (University of Denver) 

Karin Artz (ISS) 

Jeff Handmaker (ISS) 

Einar Bjørgo (UNITAR)

Endre Tvinnereim (Bergen Programme for Governance and Climate, UNI Rokkan)

Siri Gloppen (Univeristy of Bergen and CMI)

All welcome!