Publications
How climate shapes the world, why science is an art, and why free data access and international collaborations are essential.
May 2026
On Wednesday 28 May 2025, at 15:24 local time, a substantial part of the Birch glacier in the Lötschen valley of the Swiss Alps detached and triggered a catastrophic rock-ice avalanche that obliterated most of the village of Blatten and nearby settlements (Büntgen et al., 2025a). An estimated 20 million tonnes of ice and rock travelled at a speed of up to 200 km per hour over 1200 m vertical distance to the valley floor and then nearly 200 m up the opposite slope of the valley. Preserved in Switzerland’s collective memory as the largest and most devastating ever monitored rock-ice avalanches, the Blatten disaster reveals the urgent need to improve research-based policy guidance for detecting, preventing, and managing multi-hazard cascades in steep terrain, including avalanches, debris flows, and glacial lake outburst floods. While continuous monitoring and effective risk management prevented mass casualties, most parts of the world lack the means and expertise to establish such early warning systems. This policy brief addresses the increasingly critical challenges that climate brings as it shapes our data-driven and globalised world, recommending pathways forward for policymakers to include harnessing both data and global cooperation.
Energy Data Spaces and Market Power: a new challenge for data sovereignty and its governance
January 2026
This paper examines how the digitalisation of energy markets, driven by smart meter data and Energy Data Spaces, is reshaping competition in retail electricity services. It analyses the implications for market power, consumer outcomes, and data sovereignty, highlighting the regulatory challenges posed by data-driven business models that operate across national boundaries.
The New Political Economy of Supply: resources, rare earths and finance | The international implications of China’s roles in the low-carbon energy transition
August 2025
Critical Minerals and the New Industrial Order
September 2025
Energy Security in the Baltics: Perceptions in the Midst of the Russia-Ukraine War
April 2025
Amidst the geopolitical complexities of Eurasia, the strategic employment of energy resources has emerged as a potent tool for projecting power. Since coming to power, Vladimir Putin has wielded energy security as a means to exert influence across the region, with the pinnacle of this influence underscored during the February 2022 escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war. This paper delves into perceptions on energy in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania amidst the Russia- Ukraine war, specifically focusing on attitudes towards energy security, renewable energy sources, and energy efficiency.
This report focuses on the UK’s foreign, development and economic policies as they relate to climate. In examining the world as it may develop over the next decade in order to illuminate decisions needed in the short term, it argues that governments, including the UK’s new government, should treat climate as a first order geopolitical issue and examines the UK’s role and required actions within this context.
Climate change policy as a guide for orbital debris policy
4 April 2023
Orbital pollution, also known as space debris, is one of the most important global challenges in space. Although some progress has been made within the existing voluntary policy framework, more comprehensive regulations are still needed to effectively address this issue and prevent further accumulation of debris in orbit. In this commentary, Professor Nodir Adilov, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Dr. Peter Alexander, Federal Communications Commission, and Professor Brendan Cunningham, Eastern Connecticut State University, discuss a policy proposal for dealing with orbital debris that can build on climate change policy.
Climate Politics in the Age of Polarization
May 2026
How climate reshapes the world: climate as a catalyst of international change
March 2026
This discussion explores how climatic shocks interact with political authority, global cooperation, and security. The discussion also explores how past climate disruptions reveal not only the fragility of orders that failed to adapt, but also the resilience of those that did—offering lessons for how today’s institutions might endure and evolve amid 21st-century instability.
The New Political Economy of Supply: resources, rare earths and finance
May 2025
LSE IDEAS aims to examine the ongoing impact of this energy transition through a series of events, unpacking key features of this emerging industry.