DeepDCarb Publications - November 2024

The current issue of WIREs Climate Change contains our systematic review titled 'Politicians and climate change: A systematic review of the literature'. Covering 141 articles, we find a growing research area that is primarily focused on a small number of democracies in the Global North. Substantively, we analyse politicians' motivations, the incentives and barriers they face, and the strategies they employ to block/enable climate action. A briefing note outlining some key themes from the review is also available here.

In another recent DeepDCarb output 'Party preferences for climate policy and the renewable energy transition in Spain’s multilevel democracy' published in npj Climate Action, Joan Enguer examines climate policies in the manifestos of parties that won seats in the 2016, 2019, and 2023 Spanish national elections. The empirical findings suggest that parties are more likely to prioritise climate change and the renewable energy transition if they are pro-decentralization. By emphasizing how multilevel governance strengthens these priorities through party competition and the quest for regional autonomy, this article fills an important gap spanning decentralization and policy preferences related to climate and renewable energy.

​Finally, in A framework for classifying climate change questions used in public opinion surveys, published in Environmental Politics, we review climate change questions field in over 315 surveys in different parts of the world to develop an original classification framework. We reflect on what aspects the questions elicit, relate them to patterns in the existing empirical literature, and identify and reflect on important implications for future research.