Research
Around the world, we know the threats: climate change, biodiversity loss, plastic waste, and so on. Since decades we know, too, the solutions—technologies and policies capable of turning the tide. Yet, year after year, the implementation gaps between needs and achievements persist. Now, deepened geopolitical tensions, and the rise of authoritarian governments make collective action even harder to achieve.
Some call this implementation gaps. The Resource Economics Group aims closes knowledge gaps about implementation gaps, in particular social dilemmas in climate change mitigation, adaptation, or the energy transition. We have sectoral expertise on the economics of climate change, the energy and water sector, and municipal climate governance. Our methodological toolbox contains, e.g., archetype analysis, game theory, qualitative comparative analysis, qualitative and AI-based document analysis, econometrics, serious games. Our aim is to identify and research core mechanisms which lead to low-ambition policy targets or to targets not being achieved.
Municipal climate governance
Detrimental impacts of climate change have become unavoidable. They will increasingly affect e.g. the water sector, or infrastructures. Cities and municipalities need to adapt. This is not sufficient, though. But tackling climate change at its root requires global cooperation, including mitigation by local actors in municipalities, and the energy sector. Recent years see the emergence of new forms of climate cooperation where subnational actors or transnational municipal networks seek to play a leading role. Why do these new forms emerge? When are they indeed effective?
The political economy of collective action
While the energy sector is heavily transforming across the globe, there are also barriers to change from a possible carbon lock-in. Organized interests shape, delay, or redirecting action to serve their aims. These forces operate in parliaments and boardrooms, but also in town halls and city councils. We want to explain mechanisms of how power dynamics unfolds to come up with science-based strategies to for effective environmental policies. This requires a precise understanding of the incentives in the energy system and options for institutional adjustments, for example in investment conditions for renewables, electricity markets and infrastructure regulation. Our methods are serious games (like KEEP COOL), game theory, and political economy approaches that put specific attention to the games that powerful actors like lobbyists or governments from different constituencies play to re-distribute rents or to block or achieve sustainability transitions.
Archetype analysis of social-ecological systems
Our group is pioneering Archetype Analysis, a rising approach to comparative research that is increasingly used in interdisciplinary sustainability studies. The approach is particularly suitable for identifying generalizable patterns, where general regularities that apply to all cases cannot be expected. Like building-blocks, archetypes can be combined in different ways to explain what is going on in individual cases.
We serve as one hub of the growing archetypes community, which has hosted several international workshops so far. Basic ideas have been document in the special issue Archetype Analysis in Sustainability Research in Ecology & Society.
The Resource Economics Group contributes to improving archetype analysis methodologically, and apply it to study bottom-up approaches to global collective action, in particular from municipal actors.