Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Climate Solutions Lab

Uncertain Futures - How to Unlock the Climate Impasse

Uncertain Futures

Monday, April 22, 2024

12:00pm – 1:00pm

McKinney Conference Room (353), Watson Institute, 111 Thayer St.

Lunch provided

Book talk and Q & A with political scientists Alexander F. Gazmararian (Princeton) and Dustin Tingley (Harvard) on their pathbreaking new book on climate politics. 

Why is the world not moving fast enough to solve the climate crisis? Politics stand in the way, but experts hope that green investments, compensation, and retraining could unlock the impasse. However, these measures often lack credibility. Not only do communities fear these policies could be reversed, but they have seen promises broken before.

Uncertain Futures proposes solutions to make more credible promises that build support for the energy transition. It examines the perspectives of workers, communities, and companies, arguing that the climate impasse is best understood by viewing the problem from the ground up.

Featuring voices on the front lines such as a commissioner in Carbon County deciding whether to welcome wind, executives at energy companies searching for solutions, mayors and unions in Minnesota battling for local jobs, and fairgoers in coal country navigating their uncertain future, this book contends that making economic transitions work means making promises credible.