CEENRG Thursday seminars: 'The global geography of climate attitudes, North and South'

Speaker: Dr Davide Luca (Associate Professor of Economic Geography, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge)

The Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy, and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG) is hosting a seminar series throughout the 2025- 26 academic year.

Climate change is both materially and politically uneven, with impacts and perceptions shaped by geography. While subnational spatial divides in climate attitudes are well documented in high-income democracies, much less is known about whether these patterns hold in the Global South, where policy choices will be critical for both national development and global mitigation efforts. We combine a systematic review of the spatial drivers of climate opinion with an analysis of a new dataset covering around 40,000 individuals in 20 countries. We test whether urban–rural divides, distance to core cities and local economic structures influence climate perceptions. Our findings reveal both shared and divergent geographies of climate opinion between the Global North and South, highlighting why policy approaches developed in industrialised democracies cannot be assumed to translate seamlessly elsewhere.

Seminars take place as hybrid meetings (in person seminars in the DAB - David Attenborough Building + online in Zoom) every Thursday (please check precise time as may vary) during the term. Please register online to receive the Zoom link on the day of the seminar. Everyone is welcome!