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KLIMAFORSK-Stort program klima

Accelerating Climate Action and the State: Getting to Net Zero (ACCELZ)

Alternative title: Akselerasjon av klimakutt og staten: veien mot netto null (ACCELZ)

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

The Paris Agreement’s goal of pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels requires global emissions to peak as soon as possible and reach net-zero by 2050. This cannot happen without unprecedented acceleration of climate action. Getting to net-zero represents a pressing governing challenge. The main objective of ACCELZ is to enhance our understanding of how states can design public organizations, practices, and policies, to accelerate climate action towards net-zero emissions. The project aims to establish the study of the state’s role in accelerating climate action as a research frontier within climate research. We will also specify how governments, and Norway in particular, can design its political-administrative apparatus and climate policy mix to ensure acceleration of climate action. If we succeed, ACCELZ may ease the processes of combatting climate change. We will study the EU, US and India, at the central and federal levels but also explore climate governing and climate action at the state levels. Further, we will conduct a comparative study of the Nordic countries, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The project combines comparative qualitative case studies, with quantitative social science studies and establishment of a new data base. We will also draw on energy and emissions data as well as policy scenarios. We map how climate organized into the governmental apparatus and practices, and explain differences across countries and over time, and examine the inter-relationship between how climate is organized into the state apparatus and climate policy mixes. Further, we explore how the climate governing of states translate into GHG emission developments and lastly develop recommendations to policy makers. The project is cross disciplinary, situating political science at the core of climate science.

Attaining the target of net zero global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 cannot happen without unprecedented acceleration of climate action. World leaders gathered in Glasgow in 2021 confirmed the Paris Agreement’s goal of pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. This requires global emissions to peak as soon as possible and reach net-zero by 2050. All pathways that may take the world to net-zero require active state engagement. Getting to net-zero represents an unprecedented governing challenge, but an analytical framework specifying and explaining the role of the state in accelerating climate action does not yet exist. The main objective of ACCELZ is to enhance our understanding of how states can design public organizations, practices, and policies, to accelerate climate action towards net-zero emissions. ACCELZ has two secondary objectives. First, establish the study of the state’s role in accelerating climate action as a research frontier within climate research. ACCELZ will mobilize public administration and comparative politics scholars, in addition to public policy researchers, but also enable climate researchers at large to better understand the most pressing issue of climate research, namely, how to accelerate action to reach the challenging 1.5 C target. Second, specify how governments, and Norway in particular, can design its political-administrative apparatus and climate policy mix to ensure acceleration of climate action. We will develop concrete and well-founded advice to governments. If we succeed, ACCELZ may ease the processes of combatting climate change. This will be a significant positive impact, not only for Norway, but also beyond. ACCELZ performs qualitative comparative case studies of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the EU, the US and India, and quantitative comparative studies of a larger sample of countries. A new data base on how climate is organized into the state apparatus will be set up.

Funding scheme:

KLIMAFORSK-Stort program klima