Bringing Political Science into Mainstream Climate Modeling Tools

• In Event: Integrating Political Futures into Climate Scenarios – What Is in It for Political Science?

Abstract

Pathways for meeting climate policy goals are routinely derived by models whose assumptions are based only on techno-economic theories from engineering and economic disciplines, and often include many socio-political assumptions only implicitly. Meanwhile, emerging body of academic literature and the real-world evidence points to the key importance of taking socio-political heterogeneity into account. The type of political and administrative system substantially affects not only the design of climate policies but also how they are implemented. In this article, we provide an overview of the current approaches in key Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to integrate climate policies and regional heterogeneity. Building on the recent advances in quantitative political science, we then propose how the inclusion of insights from political science could be advanced further in IAMs, and thereby contribute to the dominant climate mitigation debates.

Authors

• Marina Andrijevic, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

• Elina Brutschin, Webster University Vienna, Austria