Submitted by Jonas Meckling on
How are states organizing their political institutions to respond to the challenge of climate
change mitigation? The scale and scope of climate responses are vast and often require
coordination across existing governance units; climate responses must operate across levels of
governance and also link to international processes; and climate policy-making is likely to be
iterative, requiring revision over time. This raises a number of important questions on climate
governance: Which agencies have the authority to make and implement climate and clean
energy policy? How centralized versus dispersed is authority in climate and clean energy policy-
making? What is the division of labor between different branches of government? What
policies do states adopt first, which ones later on? Understanding how institutions of climate
governance vary across countries is at the core of this project.
We are seeking to hire several students. The students would primarily collect data online to
write case studies that explore a range of institutional features of climate governance, drawing
on research articles, newspaper databases, industry journals, government documents and
websites etc. This would also involve using some existing databases on climate policy and
analyzing various reports.
Some level of prior training in public policy, political science, or social sciences more broadly is
necessary. Please highlight your relevant coursework in your application. Language skills will be
useful. Please indicate in your cover letter your reading skills in foreign languages. It would also
be helpful to know how many hours per week you would like to work on the project. A keen
interest in learning about various climate policies is essential.