Research Group on Climate, Environment and Change (REGROUP)

The Climate Research Group (REGROUP) is an interdisciplinary research group that focuses on the whole spectre of research within national and international climate politics and environmental governance at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen.

Climate people street crowd. Photo: Pexels
Photo: Pexels

REGROUP is the interdisciplinary hub for theorising and doing empirical research on green transitions at the Department of Political Science. REGROUP is first and foremost an intellectual space for the exchange of different ideas and research on climate and sustainability. To understand the challenges of ensuring effective, durable and legitimate climate and sustainable policies, REGROUP offers a platform to understand how the green transition operates at different scales than most other political problems.

To this end, the aim of REGROUP is to

  • organise monthly research seminars, and occasional thematic workshops exploring the conceptual, theoretical and methodological developments in research on political theory, comparative politics and international relations related to the green transition,
  • provide a platform for development of research applications, foster innovative research idea and initiate collaborative initiatives with external partners,
  • coordinate climate and sustainability teaching at the department,
  • enable public engagements in the climate and sustainability debate in society,
  • facilitate policy impact activities and outreach activities with relevant decision-makers and societal stakeholders, and
  • cooperate with research centres and initiatives such as Centre for Sustainability and Society (SUSY), Sustainability Science Centre and Green Solutions Centre at the University of Copenhagen as well as national and international academic partners.

 

 

Our teaching in 2022:

  • ASTK18396U 50 Years of Global Environmental Governance

    2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the first global UN conference on the environment. This course will use this anniversary to reflect on the institutions, issues, actors, and practices of global environmental governance have evolved over the past half-century. In addition, we will explore the potential of current environmental governance systems to accelerate the social, economic, political, and ecological transformations for a sustainable low-carbon future. 
    Course coordinator: Michele Merrill Betsill, e-mail: m.betsill@ifs.ku.dk

  • ASTK18384U Democratic participation in times of the Anthropocene

    This course engages with the emergence of the new geological epoch ‘The Anthropocene’. The geological epoch defines a time where human activity has become a force of nature that radically and irrevocably changes the earth. Rising sea levels, loss of biodiversity and other irreversible tipping points illustrate this – but it also underscores the connectedness of humans and non-humans / culture and nature. In the course we will investigate how democracies can face the predicament posed by the Anthropocene, especially how and whether the political norm of democratic participation can or should be expanded to non-humans. The purpose of the course is to translate abstract political theory into practice, thus institutionalizing the normative commitments in the Anthropocene.
    Course coordinator: Ingrid Helene Brandt Jensen, e-mail: ihbj@ifs.ku.dk 

  • According to the UN, 18,279 sub-national and non-state actors were involved in 27,174 actions in 2020 to address climate change and advance the goals of the Paris Agreement. Today, such 'transnational' actors and forms of governance are central to global climate change politics. This course examines these developments through the lens of broader debates about transnationalism in world politics. We will explore how and under what conditions sub-national and non-state actors such as cities, corporations, NGOs, and scientific networks have become central to global efforts to address climate change. We will consider the diverse forms of transnational governance led by these actors and the relationship of these initiatives to multilateral treaties and other state-based forms of climate change regulation. We will review efforts to assess whether transnationalism contributes to a more effective global response to climate change and reflect on the normative issues raised as transnational actors and forms of governance become more deeply embedded in global climate politics. 
    Course coordinator: Michele Merrill Betsill, e-mail: m.betsill@ifs.ku.dk
  • ASTK18391U The Politics of International Trade: The Green Transition
    How does the globalization of the economy affect the global environment? This question has long been at the center of the climate and sustainability debate. This course focuses on the role of trade, both the globalization of free trade, the recent slowbalisation of global trade and production, and the rise of geo-economic and protectionist tensions in the liberal trading order. There remains no consensus on whether free trade promotes green transitions, neither politically nor theoretically. For instance, green liberals remain convinced that greener globalization is possible, and indeed, happening at the moment, whereas critics neoliberally structured globalization as the root cause of the environmental degradation of the planet, and a barrier to a sustainable future 
    Course coordinator: Jens Ladefoged Mortensen, e-mail: jlm@ifs.ku.dk

 

 

Our ongoing events and activities:

  • Environmental Social Sciences: Challenges and Solutions for Sustainable Development is taking place at the Nuffield College of the University of Oxford, United Kingdom from Wednesday 28, 14:00, to Friday 30 July 2021, 13:15. The organisers are calling for abstracts from all social science disciplines and especially appreciate contributions from researchers in an early stage of their career. The aim is to harvest the synergies between the social sciences for fruitful interdisciplinary research that the solution of environmental problems demands.

 

Researchers

Name Title Job responsibilities Phone E-mail
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Betsill, Michele Merrill Professor Climate politics, environmental politics, global governance, transnational politics, international relations +4535330826 E-mail
Bueger, Christian Professor International relations, practice theory, ocean governance, maritime security, interpretive methods, informal governance, transnational organized c... +4535325066 E-mail
Campera de Rezende Soares, Ana C PhD Fellow European Administrative Networks; Implementation of EU's policies; EU Environmental policy; Regulatory governance; Europeanization +4535331166 E-mail
Corry, Olaf Associate Professor Climate change, climate politics, environmental politics, geo-engineering, global movements, international political theory, international relation... +4535332112 E-mail
Jakobsen, Uffe Associate Professor Arctic, Greenland and Denmark-Greenland relations, Asian/Chinese interests in the Arctic/Greenland, conceptual history, climate change's impact on ... +4535323404 E-mail
Jensen, Ingrid Helene Brandt PhD Fellow Political theory, Democratic Theory, New materialism, Climate politics, Affect theory, Climate Citizens Assemblies +4535333762 E-mail
Mortensen, Jens Ladefoged Associate Professor EU external relations, international political economy, international trade +4535323448 E-mail
Ronit, Karsten Associate Professor Decision making process, global politics, interest organisations, international organisations, new political actors, NGO's, private policy, profess... +4535323402 E-mail
Tønder, Lars Professor with special responsibilities American politics, the Anthropocene, culture, democracy, free speech, multiculturalism, political philosophy, power, satire, tolerance +4535320489 E-mail
Vandeweerdt, Clara Johan E Assistant Professor - Tenure Track Climate change, public opinion, (social) media, natural language processing, statistics +4535332076 E-mail
Wæver, Ole Head of Centre, Professor Climate change, conceptual history, conflict analysis, international relations, philosophy of science, religion/secularism, security theory, sociol... +4535323431 E-mail