Christian Elliott
@christianelliott.bsky.social
Asst. prof at the Penn State School of International Affairs. Writing/reading/thinking about finance, global governance, and climate politics. www.christianmorinelliott.com
Unlike so many others, the @financialtimes.com nails the "OMG, 1.5℃ is gone" message: "Temperature overshoot requires urgent action" Yep. And every 0.01℃ matters. Reminds me of my NYT oped with @costasamaras.com: "The widely recited '12-year deadline' is wrong — and right." gwagner.com/12years
Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.
Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 2mo agoNEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...
Has anyone else noticed a gender gap in responses to interview requests in qualitative research? I just finished several weeks of interviewing in Europe, and the response rate among men was substantially lower than among women. I haven't seen much on this in the methods literature
Reminder that Carney has cut funding for Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and Indigenous Services. And he has rolled back climate protections, abandoned emissions targets, and is building more pipelines.
3/ Wealthy societies should not be so complacent. “The deranged idea—as Amitav Ghosh describes it—that we are safe, that things are under control, that bad things only happen to people who are far away, persists. Anticipating future ruin, we fail to act in the here & now" @katemac.bsky.social & I:
Global Boiling | The Polycrisis
Stocks and flows, action and inaction in the planetary impasse
phenomenalworld.org
This is such a long shot, but if anyone is going to SASE and wants to play some tennis, message me, I WILL bring my racket across the ocean
SASE | The Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics@sasemeeting.bsky.social · 3mo ago🚋 Heading to SASE 2026 Bordeaux? Participants will soon receive their conference badge and a public transport pass for getting around Bordeaux. 📍 Sciences Po Bordeaux 🚊 Tram Line B (Montaigne–Montesquieu) 🔗 sase.org/events/2026-...
1/ You've probably never heard of Jeffery Hildebrand. But this billionaire Trump donor is one of the oil industry's top polluters — and the poster boy for a huge climate problem that's actually relatively easy to fix... 🧵
Makes perfect sense that CDP is literally selling out to a private equity firm. Its continued relevance requires ongoing demand for this voluntary reporting standard. But voluntary disclosure isn’t as important as it once was. But commodifying data to inform investment decisions? That’ll work. 🧵
Environmental reporting non-profit group CDP strikes private equity deal
Permira to take majority stake in core operations under energy transition strategy
giftarticle.ft.com
I have resigned from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Independent Standards Board. The Protocol is openly violating its own rules and has effectively delegated forest carbon accounting standards to a secret, industry-led working group. ghgpolicy.org/s/2026-06-08...
Vought is trying to destroy American science as we know it. Here's what you can do to stop him: 👉 Visit our action center: zurl.co/Hsflw 👉 Donate to Fuel the Fight for Science: zurl.co/mQlwe LINK IN BIO
New paper in @internatltheory.bsky.social! In 2020-23, nearly every major financial company worldwide was pledging to reach net zero. By 2024-25, many bailed as political backlash ramped up. Why were net-zero norms so weak? In the paper, I argue that companies were caught in a "hype cycle"
International Theory@internatltheory.bsky.social · 4mo ago#OpenAccess - Hype cycles or norm cascades? Making sense of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero - https://cup.org/4uk82Wm - @christianelliott.bsky.social #FirstView
#OpenAccess - Hype cycles or norm cascades? Making sense of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero - https://cup.org/4uk82Wm - @christianelliott.bsky.social #FirstView
The Green Planning Commission, a @cmmonwealth.bsky.social initiative, has published a report by @brusselermel.bsky.social arguing that markets can't deliver carbonization or affordable essential provisions and that green democratic economic planning is needed. www.indep.network/green-planni...
Green Planning Commission Publishes Report On Economic Coordination And The Limits Of Markets
The Green Planning Commission, an initiative of Common Wealth, has published a report by Common Wealth US Programme Director Melanie Brusseler arguing that private market coordination cannot deliver…
indep.network
Me when all my students reference Strange's "States and Markets" to analyze corporate power in their final papers
Man's Happy & Satisfied Reaction
ALT: Man's Happy & Satisfied Reaction
static.klipy.com
This, by @paulmusgrave.bsky.social, is great. What can political scientists do about all the crises hitting our discipline and institutions? Well, Paul has some answers, and I like them a lot. open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...
Political Science In the Polycrisis
My keynote talk to an online APSA conference
open.substack.com
📣New scholarship from @bartazsofi.bsky.social on how credit rating agencies (Fitch, Moody’s, S&P) discount long-term climate risks to preserve their epistemic authority - preventing the reallocation of capital away from carbon-intensive assets. justmoney.org/tragedy-hori...
Current ScholarshipTragedy of the horizon on steroids: the green transition and credit ratings
Zsófia Barta
justmoney.org
Unfortunately resonant with how financial markets seem to treat climate risk in pactice
Albert Pinto@70sbachchan.bsky.social · 5mo agoyou: did he just threaten to nuke Iran? Markets: "If an ICBM is heading your way, the size and composition of your portfolio becomes irrelevant. Thus, from a purely financial perspective, you should largely ignore existential risk,even if you do care about it greatly from a personal perspective"
1/ Disruptions mean countries will rush to exit US-led oil order Worst case scenario for oil companies (best for rest of us) is that people permanently shift...what they call “demand destruction“ i.e short term pain but Long: Iran war will accelerate ongoing STRUCTURAL shift to solar+EVs+batteries
If the euro takes on a more prominent international role, it will undoubtedly evaluate. This creates one huge problem. French wine will get more expensive To secure global support for a new financial architecture, Europe must provide export subsidies for wine producers (and cheese makers)
Economics. For Society.@ubscenter.uzh.ch · 9mo agoTrump's policies are weakening the US. @helene-rey.bsky.social sees an opportunity for the euro. In an interview on the sidelines of the #UBSCenterForum, she warns of a future where the major powers compete financially. www.ubscenter.uzh.ch/en/news_even... #EconomicsForSociety #UZH #shareUBS
This is the largest oil supply shock in history in mb/d The enemy gets a vote. Iran is now delivering pain to Trump via multiple paths (1) Gulf Kings (2) Financial meltdown (3) AI tech oligarchs (4) Fuel, fertilizer, food disruptions Read our Polycrisis Dispatch: buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
New paper with Stefan Renckens in @ripejournal.bsky.social! Sustainable finance standards are often accused of being highly fragmented. We built an original dataset of 111 Sustainable Finance Governance Initiatives (SFGIs), covering 2000-2020, to see for ourselves. The result? It's complicated.
Review of International Political Economy@ripejournal.bsky.social · 8mo agoOverlap and fragmentation in the global governance complex of sustainable finance, by Stefan Renckens & Christian Elliott
I have a new review paper out in @environmentalpol.bsky.social! ✨ What would it actually take for states to pursue green transformations? I identify 5 capacities — planning, disciplinary, strategic, legitimation and adaptive — and their respective policy elements, capabilities and institutions
🚨New piece in Politics & Society! w/ @maxkiefel.bsky.social @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social Internationalizing Industrial Policy: How China and the United States Use State Capacity to Secure Critical Minerals for Electric Vehicles 🇨🇳 🇺🇸 doi.org/10.1177/0032...
And a very special happy holidays to those of you who actually completed your peer reviews on time #polisky
Why do global environmental institutions multiply and persist even when they seem unable to address biodiversity loss and environmental governance failures effectively? Our new OA article with @jacquelinebest.bsky.social in @risjnl.bsky.social tries to answer this question. 1/7 cup.org/4hZNlcX
Failure-proof or failure-prone? The paradoxes of global biodiversity institutions | Review of International Studies | Cambridge Core
Failure-proof or failure-prone? The paradoxes of global biodiversity institutions
cup.org
PhD scholarship opportunity, to work with @sherilynmacgregor.bsky.social and myself on the 'local politics of climate backlash' at @uompols.bsky.social and @justcentre.bsky.social. Please circulate to anyone who might be interested! www.findaphd.com/phds/project....
