In August, BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling and Nicholas Goedeking, a researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) were honored with the Theodore J. Lowi Policy Studies Journal Best Article Award for their article “Coalition Cascades: The Politics of Tipping Points in Clean Energy Markets.” The award recognizes an article of particular distinction published at any time in Policy Studies Journal.
Meckling and Goedeking’s article, which was published in 2023, explores how feedback between policy subsystems drives policy change. They argue that policy change in one subsystem creates benefits (or costs) and learnings that mobilize actors for policy change in another subsystem, resulting in “coalition cascades” across interdependent subsystems. If coalition cascades lead to the resolution of coordination problems across subsystems, the system reaches a tipping point in policy change, they find. Using the case of California’s clean energy transition to illustrate, Meckling and Goedeking show how early renewable energy policy spilled over into the subsystems on grid policy, leading to energy storage policy, and on transportation policy, which resulted in electric vehicle charging policy.
“I’m grateful to and honored to receive this recognition,” said Meckling. “Many of the biggest policy challenges — climate, healthcare, housing — require change across multiple policy subsystems. This article helps explain how that kind of interconnected change becomes possible.”
“How do tipping points in policy change happen? Our article grew out of that simple question,” said Goedeking. “It led us to examine how political coalitions can cascade from one policy subsystem to another. It’s wonderful to see our argument resonate. Thank you for this honor and recognition.”
Research Lead, Climate
July 20, 2023
In this journal article, which received the American Political Science Association's Theodore J. Lowi Award, BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling and his coauthor Nicholas Goedeking, researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability, advance a model of the politics of tipping points based on trans-subsystem policy feedback that results in "coalition cascades."
December 22, 2025
Many countries assume that leading with subsidies ("carrots") reduces the need for punitive policies ("sticks") to achieve decarbonization goals. In this paper for Nature, co-authored by BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling, the authors use an economic model that allows them to compare carrot- and stick-first policy decisions, finding that a carrot-first strategy still requires similar-sized sticks to a stick-first approach to achieve comparable levels of decarbonization.
September 24, 2025
In this article, published in Nature, BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling gives an account of a major shift in global decarbonization politics — from international cooperation on the costs of climate change mitigation to competition for the benefits of clean technologies.
