Christian Flachsland

"A growing number of studies have found that the most widely used offset programs continue to greatly overestimate their probable climate impact often by a factor of five to ten or more. "
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Säulendiagramm der Sonntagsfrage zur Landtagswahl in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern von Infratest dimap für den NDR

Sonntagsfrage zur Landtagswahl in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern • Infratest dimap / NDR: AfD 38 % | SPD 19 % | CDU 13 % | DIE LINKE 12 % | BSW 7 % | GRÜNE 5 % | Sonstige 6 %
➤ Verlauf: wahlrecht.de/umfragen/lan...
🗓️ Landtagswahl: 20. September 2026
#ltwmv

Update of perhaps my favorite global climate policy indicator: The production gap report.

In fact, the gap between countries' planned fossil fuel extraction and global climate targets has widened.

Turning the tide on these indicators is essential for climate policy success.

productiongap.org

I hope the initiative will be underpinned by some cold-blooded political economy analysis to make it effective...

It's just a tough problem - doesn't mean it can/should not be tackled.
Quite the opposite, imho.

Update of perhaps my favorite global climate policy indicator: The production gap report.

In fact, the gap between countries' planned fossil fuel extraction and global climate targets has widened.

Turning the tide on these indicators is essential for climate policy success.

productiongap.org

For the first time the AfD has nudged ahead of the Union in this national polling aggregator, perhaps Germany's most reliable. Beware cope about the AfD losing this or that mayoral election, including in NRW this coming weekend. Something important is shifting.

Registration for experts interested in serving as Expert Reviewers and providing scientific comments on the First Order Draft of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities is now open!

Register here: apps.ipcc.ch/comments/src...
⚠️ Registration closes 30 Nov2025

🔗 www.ipcc.ch/2025/09/17/p...

Bowen says cutting emissions by more than 70% ‘not achievable’ as 2035 target criticised from all sides Albanese says 62% to 70% range represents ‘the sweet spot’ as Coalition rejects ‘economy wrecking’ target while Greens label it a ‘betrayal’

This has been a tumultuous week in Australian climate politics! And a good example of how target setting becomes a focal point for agenda-setting on climate, as per @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social, @chflachsland.bsky.social and my paper (below)
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Welcome to the Hertie School @climatemorgan.bsky.social!

We're excited to welcome Jennifer Morgan as a new Fellow at the Hertie School! 🌍

She'll bring her global climate policy expertise to our teaching and research, working closely with the Centre for Sustainability.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Exceptionally informative.

Welcome Theodore, we are very happy to have you!

A new chapter starts today ✨️
As I'll be completing my PhD this year, I just started a new position at the @hertieschool.bsky.social as a Research Associate at their Centre for Sustainability.
An exciting year between Paris and Berlin, from the end of the PhD to the beginning of something new 🙌

Internationale Klimapolitik: Zuständigkeit wechselt, gemeinsames Engagement bleibt- BMUKN - Pressemitteilung Die Bundesregierung stellt die internationale Klimapolitik neu auf. Die Federführung wechselt vom Auswärtigem Amt zum Bundesumweltministerium (BMUKN). Dort wird eine neue Abteilung für internationale ...

Previously headed by the foreign office, Germany’s #climatediplomacy is now consolidated at the environment ministry again.

But some things have survived the recent change of government. (1/2)

www.bundesumweltministerium.de/pressemittei...

Text: Anti-Klima-Tracker Wir schauen dieser neuen Bundesregierung Merz mit unserem Anti-Klima-Tracker kritisch auf die Finger! In Regierungsverantwortung haben wir GRÜNE in den letzten Jahren einen Klima- und Transformationsfonds entwickelt, der wichtige Vorhaben für mehr Klimaschutz – und damit mehr Schutz für uns alle vor den schlimmsten Folgen der Klimakrise – in Deutschland angestoßen hat. Die Regierung Merz hätte die Möglichkeit, diese Erfolge auszubauen. Doch statt den Klimafonds für echten Fortschritt zu nutzen, wird er nun als „Verschiebebahnhof“ für ohnehin geplante Projekte aus dem Bundeshaushalt missbraucht. Erfolgreiche Programme zur klimaneutralen Modernisierung werden ausgebremst und Mittel stattdessen in die Subvention klimaschädlicher Geschäftsmodelle oder zweifelhafte Schaufensterprojekte umgeleitet – mit massiven Rückschritten beim Klimaschutz als Folge. Nur wenige Maßnahmen im Klima- und Transformationsfonds 2026 lassen noch Hoffnung auf echten Klimaschutz erkennen.

Im "Anti-Klima-Tracker", einer neuen Webseite, die letzte Woche online ging, kritisieren die Grünen klimapolitische Entscheidungen der Bundesregierung. Doch einige der dort gemachten Aussagen sind irreführend oder unzutreffend. Dazu ein Faktencheck: (1/12) www.gruene.de/politik-fuer...

Henrik Enderlein, former President of the Hertie School and founding Director of the @delorsberlin.bsky.social‬, passed away four years ago today at the age of 46.

We remember Henrik as a visionary leader, professor, teacher and mentor.

Our thoughts remain with Henrik's family and friends today.

Very excited to join AR7 WGIII as Lead Author in Chapter 6 'Enablers & Barriers'.

As of August, do we know what fossil CO2 emissions will do in 2025?

I made an estimate in July, using IEA projections of fossil fuel use, to estimate 0.8% growth in 2025.

Carbon Monitor has an estimate based on Jan-Jun data, 0.7%.

But what about countries?

www.eenews.net/articles/in-...

1/

Today (w/ @ox.ac.uk @stanford @MIT @LSE) we’re sharing the results of the largest AI persuasion experiments to date: 76k participants, 19  LLMs, 707 political issues.

We examine “levers” of AI persuasion: model scale, post-training, prompting, personalization, & more! 

🧵:

The paper might sound nerdy, but it makes a broader point that I hope (political) economists take more seriously: institutions are not always constraints (though macro-level ones often are), sometimes they are choice variables for policymakers whose main purpose is not to directly influence

As next to nobody understands elasticity of demand, I propose calling increased car use from building an extra lane 'the Jevons effect', and increased biking from building bike infrastructure 'the Hidalgo effect'.

They differ only in whether we like the outcome, but hey, that's how all this works.

Working paper update 👇

Working paper update 👇

Our updated working paper with @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social and @chflachsland.bsky.social - Introducing and applying the Climate Institutions Analysis Framework (CIAF) - is now available ⬇️ all feedback welcome!

Introducing and applying the Climate Institutions Analysis Framework (CIAF): A comparative analysis of climate institutions in Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia using the CIAF: https://osf.io/jf8ah

h/t @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social

Unrequited Love: Estimating the Electoral Effect of a Place-based Green Subsidy with a 2D Regression Discontinuity Design: https://osf.io/s4nje

Climate change is a by-product of progress in the same way as obesity is a by-product of nutrition. For goodness sakes, it's the 21st century! We have the technology to enjoy progress without trashing the planet.