MCF Seminar: The Politics of Climate Breakdown

Ensuring a global just transition is a core challenge of implementing the Paris Agreement, requiring climate targets to be met in a fair and just manner. Yet this is complicated by a shifting global order shaped more by geoeconomics than multilateralism, even as climate impacts worsen.  

Geoeconomics—defined as the securitisation of economic policy and the economisation of strategic policy—is driving competition over critical minerals, carbon border measures, and clean energy trade disputes. In this presentation Research Associate Kennedy Mbeva will examine how these dynamics are reshaping global climate politics, especially as climate action lags as the ambition gap widens. 

About Kennedy Mbeva:

Kennedy Mbeva (PhD) is a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and Research Fellow and Member of the Governing Body at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. His research focuses on the governance of global catastrophic risk, focusing on climate change and geoeconomics. Dr Mbeva has contributed to high-profile UN reports such as the IPCC AR6 and the Adaptation Gap Report and served on Kenya’s delegation to the UN Climate Change negotiations. A Kenyan national, he holds a PhD in International Relations (distinction) from the University of Melbourne and has studied and worked in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His latest book is "Africa’s Right to Development in a Climate-Constrained World" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, co-authored).