Climate Research in Four Key Areas

Climate Policy & Sustainable Development

Climate change is at our doorstep. It is a complex issue closely related to sustainable development, one of the principles for the UN’s climate convention. Today, the work aimed at decreasing emissions is interlinked with issues of adaptation, financial measures and forestry. Many different and newly emerging actors are actively participating in climate negotiations and climate-related work. At the CSPR, we study how the climate question is linked to other political areas such as development, trade, air traffic, land use and biodiversity.

Knowledge and Communication

Knowledge and expertise represent integral parts of contemporary climate politics and policy-making. At the CSPR we study how climate related knowledge and expertise is produced, negotiated and represented for local, national and international decision-making. Rather than approaching knowledge-making as a neutral activity that simply mirrors the physical climate, our research is attentive to the underlying ideas, meanings and visibilities that are produced at the intersection of climate science and lay knowledge. Platforms for climate visualization and tools for participation represent practical outputs of our research.

Land Use & Energy

Alternative energy systems, forest conservation and global food security are key challenges in climate change mitigation and adaptation research. At CSPR we study changes in land use and energy systems and their interlinkages as well as opportunities and obstacles for achieving sustainable energy production.

Vulnerability and Adaptation

Several climate-related natural disasters in the past few years have shown that preparedness for such events is not sufficiently robust. We need to know more about the ways in which societal groups and sectors are vulnerable to climate change, and need to examine what influences our capacity to adapt to it and how measures can be best supported and implemented. Our research, therefore, aims to develop methods that help us assess what factors cause vulnerability, and analyse how preconditions are created for adapting to a changing climate.