Climate change is the single biggest policy challenge facing the world today. A global political coordination problem of epic proportions, with baggage from colonialism, short election cycles, and a deep pocketed fossil fuel lobby running interference. The stakes couldn’t be higher, with hundreds of millions of human and billions of animal lives in the balance. Who do we need to take action? Parliaments. How do we get them to do it? Here to answer that question is Mitya Pearson, assistant professor in the politics of climate change at the University of Warwick. Dr Pearson was until recently a Leverhulme early career fellow at King’s College London, where he completed his PhD, and was previously a policy analyst focusing on the parliamentary politics of climate change at Policy Connect in Westminster. Mitya has written extensively on the determinants of politicians actions with respect to climate change and how to effectively pressure them into taking decisive action. 

Mitya’s website:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/pearson/

Citizen’s assemblies and climate action: 

https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/76391 

Other topics discussed this episode: 

Broockman, D. and Skovron, C. (2018) ‘Bias in Perceptions of Public Opinion among Political Elites’, American Political Science Review, 112: 542–63

Dellmuth, L. et al.  (2022) ‘The Elite–Citizen Gap in International Organization Legitimacy’, American Political Science Review, 116: 283–300

Mitya Pearson & Alan Wager, 'Not so different: Comparing British MPs' and voters' attitudes to climate change', Parliamentary Affairs, 2024

Falck, R. (2023) ‘How Politicians and the Population Attribute Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation’, Environmental Politics, 33: 699–726

Rapeli, L. and Koskimaa, V. (2022) ‘Concerned and Willing to Pay?’, Environmental Politics, 31: 542–51.

Sundblad, E., Biel, A. and Gärling, A. (2009) ‘Knowledge and Confidence in Knowledge About Climate Change Among Experts, Journalists, Politicians, and Laypersons’, Environment and Behavior, 41: 281–302

Tranter, B. (1999) ‘Environmentalism in Australia: Elites and the Public’, Journal of Sociology, 35: 331–50

Walgrave, S. et al.  (2023) ‘Inaccurate Politicians: Elected Representatives’ Estimations of Public Opinion in Four Countries’, The Journal of Politics, 85: 209–22

Willis, R. and Westlake, S. (2023) ‘Sustaining the Political Mandate for Climate Action’, Green Alliance. https://green-alliance.org.uk/publication/sustaining-the-political-mandate-for-climate-action/

Paul Lucardie & E. Gene Frankland, Green Parties in Transition: The End of Grass-roots Democracy? (2008)