About

One the largest clusters of climate politics researchers in the UK, with expertise across UK and international climate politics.

Based in Leeds’ School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), the Climate Politics Group is one the largest clusters of climate politics researchers in the UK, with expertise across UK and international climate issues.

The Group’s collective expertise cuts across issues of climate impacts, climate adaptation and climate mitigation, as well as development, political economy, security, International Relations, and British and comparative politics. Our ethos is intentionally pluralist and employs a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches, including qualitative and quantitative research methods, and institutionalist, constructivist, decolonial and political ecology frameworks. See our research and publications pages for further details.

Across this work, we operate with broad understandings of both climate and politics. Our concern with ‘politics’ goes beyond the study of policy and governance responses to climate change (which is how ‘climate politics’ is usually understood), to also include the study of the political causes and political impacts of climate change, and the political dimensions of knowledge about it. Our interest in ‘climate’ acknowledges that climate issues are always embedded in broader energy, environmental, economic and other contexts; indeed, we are sometimes as concerned with these wider contexts as with climate change itself.

Our work involves numerous and ongoing research collaborations – both across disciplines and countries, and with non-academic partners. At Leeds, we collaborate extensively with the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures, the Sustainability Research Institute and other cross-disciplinary research groupings. For further information on these internal and external collaborations see our research and links pages.

Central to the Climate Politics Group’s work are our regular events, including internal-facing seminars to discuss research ideas and draft research findings, and periodic one-day workshops and conferences, usually linked to specific research projects. See our events page for further information.

The Group comprises more than 20 POLIS staff members undertaking research on, or relating to, climate change, plus a large number of PhD and postdoctoral researchers. See our people pages for further details.