Green Political Economy
Speaker
The de-carbonisation of industrial economies is moving apace and bringing with it a silent transition, a phenomenon ‘hiding in plain sight’, in the foundational structures of the international political economy. New sources of energy are not only propelling the adoption of green technologies and reconfiguring global supply and production chains but are also reshaping centres of global power in unexpected ways. At the same time, polarising political narratives surrounding climate action are complicating the development of coherent environmental policies and intensifying geopolitical frictions, influencing how states position themselves within the emerging energy landscape. LSE IDEAS proposes to examine the ongoing impact of the energy transition through a series of events aimed at unpacking key features of this world in the making and the role that the energy transition has in that process.
Meet the Speakers
Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations and the Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, a world leading executive MBA programme jointly run by NYU Stern School of Business, HEC Paris and LSE.
His research focuses on global environmental politics, international political economy, and the role of business in international relations. He has published widely in these areas, including The Market in Global International Society: An English School Approach to International Political Economy (co-authored, Oxford University Press, 2025), Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities (co-edited, Oxford University Press, 2022), Environmentalism and Global International Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy (edited, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). His new book Green Political Economy will be published by Polity Press in September 2026.
His research has been supported by grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), European Commission, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation and Stiftung Mercator, among others. He was the Academic Co-Director of the Dahrendorf Forum, a joint research and public engagement programme between LSE, Hertie School of Governance and Stiftung Mercator (2015-17), and the Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE (2017-22). He was an associate editor of the European Journal of International Relations (2004-08). He currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals Earth System Governance, Global Environmental Politics, Global Policy and Schmollers Jahrbuch: Journal of Contextual Economics.
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