Research lessons can guide climate policy
We need a strong transition policy that matches the critical importance of climate change.
Climate research in the social sciences can guide the required change in climate policy, writes Mistra SAMS researcher Karolina Isaksson, Professor in Transport Policy and Planning at VTI and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in an opinion piece together with researchers from Uppsala University, Linköping University and Örebro University.
Unforgiving extreme weather and increased emissions require political leadership with crisis insight and a powerful transition policy, that frees society from fossil fuel dependence and unsustainable consumption and production.
Researchers Karolina Isaksson, Deputy Director of Mistra SAMS, Rolf Lidskog, Professor of Sociology at Örebro University, Eva Lövbrand, Professor of Environmental Change with a focus on climate policy at Linköping University, and Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and Uppsala University, present lessons from social science climate research that can guide climate policy to make an important shift.
Climate policy needs to be anchored here, the researchers write in their opinion piece in Sydsvenskan. "Without a well-established national policy, the EU's ambitious legislative package could be perceived as an unfair imposition from above, which could lead to populism," the researchers warn. This is why long-term bipartisan agreements are needed, they say.
We must stop shuffling problems around
Often when a society faces complex problems, responsibility is placed on someone else, postponed to the future, or complex societal challenges are simplified and met with technical solutions alone. But the climate-neutral society must take shape here and now.