Global efforts to address climate change appear headed on a collision course with national self-interest and great power politics. In the United States, now the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, President Donald Trump is systematically reversing federal climate policy advances of the previous administration and seeking to actively impede the energy transition. China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, has secured a commanding position across all major clean technology supply chains, relying on decades of state intervention to build an unrivalled comparative advantage. Meanwhile, Europe appears cornered, traditionally relying on the U.S. for security and increasingly for still-needed fossil fuel supplies, while at the same time seeking to sustain its ambitious European Green Deal in the face of growing economic pressures and electoral backlash.
How will evolving political dynamics and national interest affect the pace and direction of decarbonization efforts, including international climate cooperation?
Programme:
Keynote:
Michael Mehling, Non-Resident Fellow, FIIA & Deputy Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Comment:
Antto Vihma, Research Professor, FIIA
Welcoming words & chair:
Emma Hakala, Leading Researcher, FIIA
Speakers
Non-Resident Fellow, FIIA & Deputy Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Michael Mehling is Deputy Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, and a Professor at the University of Strathclyde Law School in Glasgow. In his work, he focuses on climate policy design and implementation at the domestic and international level, including its intersections with environmental, energy, financial market, and trade policy.
For more than two decades, he has coordinated research, advisory and capacity building projects on these topics for international organizations, government agencies, private companies, and civil society organizations in North America, Europe, and the developing world. He has advised decision makers in over a dozen countries, testified before or briefed legislators in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, and served as an expert in several climate litigation and arbitration cases.
As part of his activities, he has also helped build several institutions and initiatives in the areas of climate law and policy. He is a founding board member, inter alia, of the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST) in Brussels, the Blockchain & Climate Institute (BCI) in London, and the Ecologic Institute in Washington, DC, as well as the founding editor of Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR), the first academic quarterly journal focused on climate law and regulation.
Additionally, he serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of Climate Strategies in London and Ecologic Institute in Berlin, a Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Climate Protection, Energy and Mobility (IKEM) in Berlin, and a Commissioner with the Commission on Carbon Competitiveness (C3) in Ottawa, ON, a Policy Advisor of the Center for Climate and Trade at the Climate Leadership Council (CLC) in Washington, DC, and an Associate Researcher with the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) at the University of Cambridge.
His research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals in international law, environmental law and policy, and climate and energy law and policy, and his subject-matter expertise has featured in various mainstream media outlets, including Bloomberg, The Economist, Financial Times, Globe and Mail, National Public Radio, NBC News, New York Times, Politico, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Trained as a lawyer, he is a German and American citizen, and has lived for extended periods in Europe, the United States, and Latin America.
Research Professor, FIIA
Antto Vihma works as a Research Professor at FIIA. He is the PI in an Academy of Finland funded project TRANSCLIM (2020–2024), which studies transparency in global climate governance.
His research has centered on climate politics, policy analysis, and political theory. He has approached climate change in a multidisciplinary way, combining the research traditions of International Relations (IR) and international law. In addition, Vihma has engaged in case studies, including several in the Global South. The results have been published in leading journals such as International Affairs, Geopolitics, and Global Environmental Politics. Vihma has also published a number of articles intended for professional communities and the general public. In 2012-2016, he was writer/editor for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (IISD).
Recently, Vihma has co-authored a monograph on post-truth politics (Totuuden jälkeen, in Finnish), which was shortlisted for the Kanava prize in 2018. His latest monograph on nostalgia (Nostalgia: Teoria ja käytäntö, in Finnish), was awarded the State Award for Public Information in 2022.
Leading Researcher, FIIA
Dr. Emma Hakala is a Leading Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Her research focuses on environmental security and the geopolitics of climate change, such as the role of international actors in building climate security practices. She leads the project “Climate change and Finland’s security of supply” and a part on conflict analysis in the project “Water Cooperation and Peace – Finnish Water Way”, which FIIA implements as a partner of the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE).
Hakala gained her D.Soc.Sci degree in political history at the University of Helsinki in 2018. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the securitisation of the environment and the role of international organisations in post-conflict Western Balkans. Hakala has previously obtained a Master’s degree in political history at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Hakala is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project “Toxic Crimes: Legal Activism against Wartime Environmental Destruction” at the University of Helsinki and a member of the multidisciplinary BIOS Research Unit.