Social Engagement
As an academic, I find it crucially important to actively engage in societal debates and policy discussions on the pressing issues that I research. I thus strive to bring my research findings and their implications for policy to the attention of decision-makers and societal actors.
I do this through engaging with the media, participating in podcasts and public debates, giving talks and serving as an expert in assessments, science advice mechanisms, and science-for-policy settings.
I provide my research-informed position on controversial issues in UN settings, meetings with government representatives, and other arenas.
Currently, my focus is on solar radiation modification and transparency in global climate governance.
Solar radiation modification
I am deeply concerned about the prospects of risky and speculative solar radiation modification technologies to exacerbate ecological and political risks and inequalities.
This is a long-standing area of research for me, and in recent years, I have brought my research-grounded findings on the governance of solar geoengineering to diverse societal and policy arenas.
Examples of events I have organized or been part of, and public interventions I have made are listed under media appearances and talks.
I also co-initiated and now co-lead the academic initiative calling on governments, the United Nations, and other political actors to agree to an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering. and political risks and inequalities;
Transparency in climate governance
Since the mid-1990s, I have engaged with multiple United Nations multilateral negotiations on forest, biodiversity and climate change, with one core aim being to shine a light on whether their design and outcomes help to reduce or rather further entrench North-South inequalities.
I have sought to bring insights from my research back into this arena: most recently, by highlighting how the mandatory climate transparency obligations of the 2015 Paris Agreement serve to maintain an unequal status quo, rather than enhancing accountability of the largest historical emitters.
Together with my TRANSGOV project colleagues, I have co-organized events at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COPs) in 2022, 2023 and 2024 in Egypt, Dubai and Baku, respectively, to bring government representatives, the UNFCCC secretariat, and researchers together to deliberate upon these findings.
This line of research has received an Impact Explorer Award from the Netherlands Research Council, to engage with policymakers from Least Developed Countries, in order to ascertain whether the Paris Agreement’s transparency obligations are fit for purpose and serve their needs and priorities.
Events and interventions relating to this social engagement are listed under talks on this website.
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Detailed videos, blogs and other interventions into policy and societal arenas are also available on my TRANSGOV project website.