Overview
The working assumption of DeepDCarb is that the societal and political commitment to deliver deep decarbonisation emerges out of a dynamic, three-way relationship between politicians, publics and other actors. It therefore seeks to fully understand the conditions in which different democracy types address societal commitment dilemmas by adopting devices that seek to endure over very long periods of time. This will be carried out over a five-year programme of groundbreaking theoretical, empirical and methodological work, divided into five interconnected work packages (WPs) to provide a holistic perspective.
The project is committed to carrying out its work under high ethical standards and to publish its findings in open access outlets, commensurate with ERC requirements.
The project is committed to carrying out its work under high ethical standards and to publish its findings in open access outlets, commensurate with ERC requirements.
WP1 - Concepts
DeepDCarb combines different disciplinary understandings of the governance of policy issues that share a significant temporal dimension, all in the context of salient macro-trends in democracy and climate governance. WP1 provides the conceptual and theoretical vision for the project, out of which will emerge a new terminology to guide the development of a new sub-field of climate change research.
State-of-the-art reviews will be undertaken to produce scene-setting articles and opinion pieces that initiate and inform a fresh, interdisciplinary dialogue with researchers working in cognate areas and disciplines. Workshops will be organised with other academics to build a deeper dialogue between existing disciplinary perspectives, ensure that DeepDCarb receives ongoing external scrutiny and validation and forges new collaborations. Out of these, journal special issues will be generated.
Finally, WP1 will also ensure that ethical and data management requirements are fully respected throughout the lifetime of the project.
State-of-the-art reviews will be undertaken to produce scene-setting articles and opinion pieces that initiate and inform a fresh, interdisciplinary dialogue with researchers working in cognate areas and disciplines. Workshops will be organised with other academics to build a deeper dialogue between existing disciplinary perspectives, ensure that DeepDCarb receives ongoing external scrutiny and validation and forges new collaborations. Out of these, journal special issues will be generated.
Finally, WP1 will also ensure that ethical and data management requirements are fully respected throughout the lifetime of the project.
WP2 - Policy/Governance
This part of the project explores the nature of the commitment devices that have been adopted since 1990. It foremost studies climate policy activity and diversity in policy instrument mixes at the national level and subnational level for selected countries.
The main aim is to better understand why countries, states and cities differ in their adopted commitment devices and thus their ambition to mitigate climate change. We thereby focus on investigating whether and how different political regimes differ in their chosen commitment devices. Most of the analyses will be conducted quantitatively.
In the course of the project, we will produce four unique longitudinal datasets that enable comparative analyses on a global scale, among OECD- and BRICS-countries and among states and cities within selected countries. For the first time, these data will uncover the changing pattern of political commitment empirically through time and across the world.
The main aim is to better understand why countries, states and cities differ in their adopted commitment devices and thus their ambition to mitigate climate change. We thereby focus on investigating whether and how different political regimes differ in their chosen commitment devices. Most of the analyses will be conducted quantitatively.
In the course of the project, we will produce four unique longitudinal datasets that enable comparative analyses on a global scale, among OECD- and BRICS-countries and among states and cities within selected countries. For the first time, these data will uncover the changing pattern of political commitment empirically through time and across the world.
WP3 - Politicians
The connections between publics and their legislative representatives are an essential, defining characteristic of all political systems. WP3 investigates how far and through what devices politicians have interacted with publics and other actor types to deliver deep decarbonisation. It aims to advance our knowledge of how they understand climate change - and specifically deep decarbonisation - as well as how and where they are constrained or incentivised to square the circle of advancing deep decarbonisation while also remaining responsive to their constituents’ and interest groups’ demands.
WP3 employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods to shed light onto these relationships from the perspective of elected politicians. Computational and manual text analysis methods are used to understand their parliamentary behaviour in ideal-type democracies (Canada, Germany and the UK) and in systems that are in transition towards (or away from) democracy. Custom-designed elite surveys examine the extent to which (and on which matters) politicians’ views and expectations of climate change are aligned with those of publics (as documented by WP4). And semi-structured qualitative elite interviews will provide a deeper understanding of the beliefs, motivations and incentives that underly the empirical patterns uncovered by quantitative methods.
WP3 employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods to shed light onto these relationships from the perspective of elected politicians. Computational and manual text analysis methods are used to understand their parliamentary behaviour in ideal-type democracies (Canada, Germany and the UK) and in systems that are in transition towards (or away from) democracy. Custom-designed elite surveys examine the extent to which (and on which matters) politicians’ views and expectations of climate change are aligned with those of publics (as documented by WP4). And semi-structured qualitative elite interviews will provide a deeper understanding of the beliefs, motivations and incentives that underly the empirical patterns uncovered by quantitative methods.
WP4 - Publics
WP4 offers new insights into public engagement with commitment dilemmas. DeepDCarb is uniquely equipped to assess whether the public sphere allows publics to become more engaged, or simply gives the powerful and the engaged new ways to exert control.
This work package will explore these issues holistically and comprehensively through the following programme of work:
With quantitative analysis of custom-designed original surveys that will be fielded across a number of key countries, we will examine publics’ preferences for climate action, whether publics perceive that climate action comes at the expense of delivering on other key societal goals, explore the types of policy that publics are willing to support, and also whether such choices are constrained by individual or contextual conditions. Moreover, we will examine the extent to which (and on which matters) public views and expectations of climate change are aligned with those of politicians (as documented by WP3) and those where they are not.
Drawing upon the results of the survey work, we will then bring publics together in focus groups to explore their perceptions of agency, efficacy and trust in democracy and/or other governance systems, to explore the extent to which their perceptions in respect of climate action are related to their perceived ability to act, or to other motivations. We will explore the fine line between mistrust and cynicism. Importantly, these focus groups will also investigate whether publics want to lead themselves or be led by others, which may include politicians, grassroots organisations, other societal actors, deliberative climate assemblies and/or scientific experts.
This work package will explore these issues holistically and comprehensively through the following programme of work:
With quantitative analysis of custom-designed original surveys that will be fielded across a number of key countries, we will examine publics’ preferences for climate action, whether publics perceive that climate action comes at the expense of delivering on other key societal goals, explore the types of policy that publics are willing to support, and also whether such choices are constrained by individual or contextual conditions. Moreover, we will examine the extent to which (and on which matters) public views and expectations of climate change are aligned with those of politicians (as documented by WP3) and those where they are not.
Drawing upon the results of the survey work, we will then bring publics together in focus groups to explore their perceptions of agency, efficacy and trust in democracy and/or other governance systems, to explore the extent to which their perceptions in respect of climate action are related to their perceived ability to act, or to other motivations. We will explore the fine line between mistrust and cynicism. Importantly, these focus groups will also investigate whether publics want to lead themselves or be led by others, which may include politicians, grassroots organisations, other societal actors, deliberative climate assemblies and/or scientific experts.
WP5 - Integration
The main aims of WP5 are threefold. Firstly, it will integrate the outputs of the other WPs throughout the entire project and from them extract underlying lessons that significantly advance the state-of-the-art and establish a new research agenda to guide a new inter-disciplinary subfield. Secondly, it will disseminate the main findings to academics, policymakers and societal actors through workshops, a final conference and peer reviewed papers, fully respecting ERC’s commitment to open access publishing. This WP will also coordinate the production of two monographs which will showcase the main scientific breakthroughs of the project.