The year 2017 marks the start of a new era for climate policy. With the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on 4 November 2016, the international community has embarked on a new phase focused on domestic implementation of climate action. At the same time, work continues at the global scale to facilitate, monitor and take stock of national implementation, while pushing countries towards the progressively greater ambition that is needed if global temperatures are to be kept ‘well below’ 2°C above pre-industrial levels, let alone below 1.5°C.
It is in this context that the Climate Policy journal also embarks on a new era, as its Founding Editor, Professor Michael Grubb, hands over the baton of his 16-year leadership to the three of us: Frank Jotzo at the Australian National University; Harald Winkler at the University of Cape Town and Joanna Depledge at the University of Cambridge. We are honoured and delighted to be taking on the role of editors of this internationally renowned journal, especially at this critical juncture in the history of the climate change regime. We will be working closely as a triumvirate: Frank and Harald’s role as Editors-in-Chief will aim at strategic inputs, while Joanna will manage the day-to-day operations and decision-making, while contributing to strategic direction, together with her editorial team led by Jill Fisher.
Michael recalled some of the history of climate policy and the journal in his valedictory editorial in Volume 16, issue 8 (2016). Together with excellent editorial teams, and an engaged community of associate editors and editorial board members, he made the journal what it is today - the ‘go to' journal for research on both international and national climate policy. We aim to consolidate that status. In doing so, we will doubtless call on the wide expertise of the editorial community in general, and on Michael as founding editor, for wise counsel.
We see a rising need for academic thought leadership on a variety of themes, which we hope to see covered through high-quality papers in the pages of Climate Policy in the years to come.
These include analysis and research on the interaction between development and climate change policy; domestic climate change mitigation policy, including interaction with development policies and objectives in various sectors; policy efforts to support decarbonization and technologies that make low-carbon economies possible; climate change adaptation policy at all scales, including institutions and financing, technology and capacity-building; options to address loss and damage; ways of strengthening action so as to narrow the gap between the 2/1.5°C collective goal and nationally determined contributions; climate finance; the evolution of international regimes, including to ensure transparency in the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its emerging rule-book; cooperation outside of the UN framework; carbon pricing; climate policy and action at the sub-national scale and especially in cities; and climate policy in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals.
We will continue to run Climate Policy as a world-leading journal for high-quality academic articles spanning all aspects of climate change policy, not limited to those themes outlined above. The journal’s remit ranges across disciplines and scales. It is accessible to, and influential in the global and domestic climate change policy communities. The journal’s impact factor rose to 1.98 in 2015 and (with apologies to the Paris Agreement) we now aim for ‘well above’ 2.
To achieve that, the peer-review process, upon which the journal’s high standards depend, must continually improve. We will ask reviewers for even speedier turnaround. As editors, we will be more selective in the papers that we send to reviewers. We will seek out original and ground-breaking research, notably on topics and regions where the literature remains sparse.
In this regard, we are mindful that many developing countries are scaling up their climate action. It will be important to share their experiences of policy design and implementation, also in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, the context set in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement. Climate policy in many developed countries is being refined or reformed. In contrast to the unifying moment of the adoption of the Paris Agreement, we have seen a fragmentation of the international policy landscape, with stark divergences in the approaches taken by individual countries. There is uncertainty about the effect of the Trump Presidency, both on policy within the United States and the international climate policy process. At the same time, it appears clear that many countries – including China – are pursuing their domestic climate policy agendas quite irrespective of political shifts in other countries.
All this is fertile ground for research and analysis, and presents important opportunities to inform the wider climate policy community. There is clearly a role for sound and authoritative research to inform the debates and the need for a journal like Climate Policy has never been greater. We expect forward-looking analysis of options to remain a strong feature of the journal. As national governments, regions and non-state actors get on with the hard task of implementing policies and projects, valuable lessons can be learned from ex-post evaluation of emerging experiences. As ever, we will look for policy relevance and a style that is accessible to policy-makers and practitioners, while adhering to high academic standards. Climate Policy already draws on a wide professional network. The journal will retain its informal relationship with the international research network Climate Strategies, making use of opportunities for collaboration and communication, while also extending its reach and influence into other networks.
In all this we rely on you, the readers, as well as the community of editorial board members, associate editors and the wide range of friends of the journal.
We are excited by the challenge and opportunity to lead Climate Policy. As an editorial triumvirate at home in three continents and between us spanning a diverse range of expertise and networks, we look forward to serving the community and steering the journal in this new era for climate policy.
ORCID
Frank Jotzo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2856-847X
Harald Winkler http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5826-4071
Joanna Depledge http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1137-0096