Episode 140 COP26 SPECIAL Deep dive on the outcome of COP26, the structure and future of the COPs with professor Stefan Aykut

The Sustainability Agenda

In this fascinating discussion on the COP, Professor Stefan Aykut, a German scholar working on global climate governance, on the role and expectations around COP26. Stefan shares a more positive assessment of COP26 than some others interviewed on this podcast: ultimately, he points out, the outcome is in the hands of national governments. Stefan argues that one of the main reasons climate problems have not received the necessary attention is that they have been treated as uniquely climate problems . But he sees signs that is changing. Stefan worries that the lack of solidarity in the way the Global North has dealt with COVID crisis does not augur well for dealing with climate problems in the future. Notwithstanding its urgency, Stefan also worries about the dangers of framing global warming as an emergency: emergencies, he says, are associated with concentration of political power.

Stefan Aykut is Junior professor of Sociology, Director at Center for Sustainable Society Research (CSS) Hamburg, Germany. He is a sociologist, political scientist and Science and technology scholar working on global climate governance and sustainability transformations with a particular focus on contemporary approaches to aligning economic activities and social practices with global ecological limits.