Governance

This working group analyzes options for governing global climate change. It focuses on actors and institutions relevant to climate policy at multiple levels (e.g., international, national, subnational). In doing so, the researchers analyze policy instruments with the aim to design an effective, incentive-compatible and fair international regime for climate change mitigation.

Team members

Leitung:  NN

Simon Feindt

Research topics

The group’s research focuses on designing policy instruments and institutions for ambitious climate change mitigation and sustainable development. Key questions are: How can the Paris Agreement be developed further to gradually increase the level of ambition of national climate policies? Which policy options lead to ambitious decarbonization pathways in multi-level governance settings? How should optimal carbon prices be designed in the context of the Social Cost of Carbon? How can the interests of different actor groups be taken into account? The researchers apply input-output analysis, analytical modelling and integrated assessment modeling.

Research projects

As part of the cross-institutional FutureLab on Game Theory & Networks of Interacting Agents between PIK and MCC, the working group applies novel methods to analyze cooperation on climate change mitigation. Particularly, the researchers analyze how transfer payments from multilateral funds (such as the Green Climate Fund) can be designed to strengthen cooperation within the Paris Agreement. Additionally, the group studies how inequality influences the level of the Social Cost of Carbon. Within the EU Horizon 2020 NAVIGATE project, the group contributes to the development of the next generation of integrated assessment models. A special focus lies on the better representation of distributional impacts of climate change and climate policies. In the context of the CHIPS project, the researchers analyze possible trade-offs and synergies between intra- and intertemporal inequality originating from socioeconomic and climate-related drivers and their influence on optimal carbon pricing.
The group collaborates with researchers from U Princeton, UC Berkeley, CIRED, CMCC and PIK, among others.