Making sense of state climate (in)action: An existentialist study of how states imagine global climate change

Global climate change is arguably the most important problem we face today and it is widely regarded as an “existential” security threat by states and international organizations. Yet, far-reaching state action is absent. How do we make sense of this? While existing explanations have focused on structural and economic factors, this study starts from the assumption that tackling climate change is about winning the “war of the imaginary”. It investigates processes of existential and subjective sense-making by analysing how states imagine the climate crisis and with what consequences for their behaviour. Accordingly, this project has three aims: first, to map the different ways in which states imagine climate change and its outcomes; second, to analyse and theorize the relationship between climate change imaginaries and the way states make sense of their own existence; and third, to investigate the link between how states imagine global climate change and their willingness to take climate action. Using a theoretical lens informed by philosophical and psychological existentialism, the study will conduct a mixed-method textual analysis of international climate change negotiations and debates about the declaration of national climate emergencies to generate new empirical and theoretical knowledge about state (in)action on climate change. Doing so has value beyond academia, as it might help us to frame climate change in a way that is conducive to climate action.