SUS-POL Research Programme

Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement requires a new approach to climate governance that gets to the heart of the climate crisis: fossil fuel production. Efforts to mitigate climate change over the last three decades have predominantly targeted end-use emissions. But given the urgency of cutting emissions and the necessity of leaving large amounts of fossil fuels in the ground, this approach is no longer sufficient. The SUS-POL research programme is exploring a radical new approach to climate governance: one that centres policies which seek to reduce the supply of fossil fuels to the energy system. Funded by UKRI Frontiers programme and based, SUS-POL is based at the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. Drawing on the fields of global political economy, international relations, sociology, geography and transitions studies, the SUS-POL project seeks to identify the political, economic, cultural and social conditions and processes that give rise to, and help to spread, policies that seek to limit fossil fuel production and ensure that reserves remain in the ground.