Can Democracies Deal with the Climate Crisis?

Date: Monday, Feb 3, 2024

Time: 12:15pm - 1:30om

Location: Room 1447, UCLA School of Law

RSVP: https://forms.gle/aUhg26w86VB8tjeG8
 
The environmental consequences of the 2024 presidential election are coming into sharper focus as the U.S. confronts one of the largest climate-fueled disasters in its history. But the U.S. is not the only country where climate politics are complicating climate policy. Some political scientists are asking whether democracies are adequately equipped to deal with the growing climate crisis.
 
Join the Emmett Institute for a provocative discussion about the challenges that the climate crisis poses to constitutional democracies. Can the global-scale and long-term efforts needed to address climate change gain and sustain democratic support? Can democratic national governments support equitable global sharing of burdens? Can they act effectively in response to incomplete or uncertain scientific information? Can they make decisions whether to include geoengineering interventions in climate response and if so how to govern them?  How does rising populism influence the answers to these questions? And how can national and global institutions be redesigned to effectively address the climate challenge?
 
Cristóbal Bellolio is Associate Professor at the School of Government, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile, where he studies political theory and its relation to science, religion, populism, constitutional debates, and Latin American politics. In 2024-2025, he holds the Tinker Visiting Professorship at the University of Chicago.
 
Bellolio will be joined in conversation with Professor Ted Parson, Faculty Director of the UCLA Emmett Institute, and an expert in international environmental law and policy and the role of science and technology in policy-making.