dr. SJ (Sean) Low

What is the future of global climate governance? What technologies, policies, and other strategies should we deploy? Most importantly: Who says so, and who benefits?

I explore the politics of scientific assessment and knowledge-making in climate governance, drawing on insights from qualitative research in global environmental governance, expert and participatory assessment, practices of anticipation and imagination, science and technology studies, and (nascently) political ecology.

I am particularly interested in how assessments on novel climate technologies or strategies shape and are shaped by policy and societal activity. I focus on the uses, limits, and politics of anticipatory or future-oriented assessment to explore emerging technology fields implacting global climate governance, with an eye to the entrepreneurial role of scientists, innovation, and civic organizations.

My current work is on potentially game-changing but immature propositions for new carbon sinks, or carbon dioxide removal (CDR). I maintain an interest (and a critical stance) on solar geoengineering, and to an open-ended array of proposals for transboundary techno-environmental interventions that might protect ecosystems and livelihoods but pose deep uncertainties for global governance. I welcome collaboration or supervision regarding any of these topics!

I completed my PhD at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, and was previously a researcher at the Research Institute for Sustainability (Germany) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the University of Waterloo (Canada).

All publications can be found here.