Climate
The opposition to action amongst fossil fuel producers and their efforts to aid climate denialism (particularly in American politics) has been well documented. Yet the participation of businesses that stand to profit from an energy transition is less well understood. Industries as disparate as financial institutions, technology companies, wholesale and retail businesses, automobile manufacturers, and renewable energy producers are re-orienting their activities to the active measurement and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. They also stand to benefit enormously from recent changes in government policies. How politics and business might support a “green” economy is a core political economy question.
How politics and business might support a “green” economy is a core political economy question.
Importantly, the group’s approach to this ecological transition also centers on the relationship between economic governance and environmental justice. The group will work to understand efforts to identify the impacts of climate change on the most vulnerable, both in the U.S. and around the world. There is a great deal of evidence that ethnic and racial minority communities suffer the brunt of these changes in the U.S. There are even more dramatic impacts in the developing world. The group hopes to identify not just who is vulnerable and why but also programs that work to offer ideas to mitigate those impacts.
Cluster Lead
Jonas Meckling, Associate Professor, Energy and Environmental Policy
Participating Faculty
Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Eric Biber, Edward C. Halbach Jr. Professor of Law
Ryan Brutger, Associate Professor, Political Science
Amanda Clayton, Assistant Professor, Political Science
Neil Fligstein, Class of 1939 Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology
Meg Mills-Novoa, Assistant Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Rebecca Perlman, Assistant Professor, Political Science
Samuel Trachtman, Senior Researcher, UC Berkeley Possibility Lab
David J. Vogel, Soloman P. Lee Chair Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Business Ethics; Professor Emeritus, Political Science Department; Editor, California Management Review