Dr Lucas Geese (University of East Anglia) joined Dr Susie Wang (Climate Barometer) as speaker at a Tyndall Centre seminar on 15th July, asking: are public and politicians’ views becoming more polarised or not – and, if so, what might be effective responses to declining support for climate action?

Dr Lucas Geese presented work finding that UK Members of Parliament (MPs) and the public overestimated the time left to meet a critical deadline for limiting global warming and that MPs representing high-emitting constituents hardly engage in parliamentary debates on decarbonisation. This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council-funded Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) and the European Research Council-funded project The Democratic Challenges of Navigating Governance Traps (DeepDCarb).

Dr Susie Wang is the lead on Insights and Data systems at Climate Barometer, which tracks and makes sense of UK public and political opinion on climate change over time. Climate Barometer’s twice-yearly tracker shows that both the public and MPs consistently underestimate public support for renewables and local energy infrastructure, and while net zero support is lower than it was four years ago, this figure has plateaued rather than plummeted.
 
Seminar details:
"Politician and public support for deep and rapid decarbonisation”
Speakers: Dr Lucas Geese, University of East Anglia and Dr Susie Wang, Climate Barometer. Discussant: Sam Chetan-Welsh, Green Alliance. Chair: Asher Minns, Tyndall Centre.
Date: Wednesday 15th July 2026
More information, see Tyndall Centre past events

On 5th June 2026, researchers and practitioners gathered at the Marsilius Kolleg in Heidelberg (Germany) to explore the role of subnational actors in sustainability transitions. Prof. Dr. Jale Tosun presented the key findings of ERC funded research (DeepDCarb project), on the role of local authorities in driving city level climate action, drawing from the book “Subnational Climate Leadership Dynamics Among Under2 Coalition Members”, co-authored with Simon Bulian, Alfie Gaffney, Joan Enguer, and Emiliano Levario Saad. Her talk included Baden-Württemberg’s role within transnational networks of regional alliances. For more information on this 'free to read' pivot book (published in March 2026), please see here. 

Analyses of the most comprehensive climate policy dataset ever assembled (consisting of 3917 policy instruments adopted between 2000 and 2022 by 43 leading economies, contributing to over three quarters of global emissions) demonstrate that countries with stricter and better-targeted climate policies cut carbon emissions faster.
This major new study published in Nature Communications by researchers in the UK and EU also shows that targeting policies matters (policies aimed at the most polluting sectors — like energy, industry and transport — have the greatest effect. Climate targets strengthen policy impact and the presence of dedicated governmental bodies including ministries and intergovernmental organisations. The cumulative effect of all climate policy portfolios over our study period amounts to 3.1 GtCO2 fewer emissions in 2022 relative to a no-policy counterfactual - substantially less than what’s needed to stay on track for the Paris Agreement goals.

This book provides one of the first comprehensive analyses of the Under2 Coalition examining the climate actions of sub-national governments. It examines climate policy effort among subnational governments participating in the Under2 Coalition (the largest network of subnational governments aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest). Focussing on subnational governments in Canada, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States (five countries that played influential roles in founding and developing the Under2 Coalition) it explores (a) whether Under2 Coalition founding members demonstrate greater climate policy effort compared to early joiners (2015-2016) and later joiners (post-2016), and (b) whether any differences persist over time. This work in this book (i) demonstrates how climate policy effort and leadership dynamics evolve within the Under2 Coalition framework, (ii) provides comparative insights from membership categories within countries and across nations, (iii) offers a replicable methodological template for expanding this research approach to other contexts.
This book is available open access, please find more details here.

As an outcome of the European Green Deal, European Climate Pact Ambassadors (ECPAs) were established to promote climate action within their networks at both a local and an EU level. This book focuses on the volunteers who commit to the role of ECPA, and unpacks who steps up, how they advocate for policy change, and what they experience along the way. Bridging political sociology, policy analysis, and multi-level governance, the book offers a rare insight into EU-level civic participation.
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Published 27 November 2025 (Open access available via Bristol University Press  Digital):  https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/european-climate-pact-ambassadors.