Description
This paper considers the political relationship between science and politics - and the political dilemmas of the planetary - via the lens of scale in global climate governance through the UNFCCC. The state system conceives of scale as smooth and infinitely expandable, even beyond the limits of the Earth system, a mappable and predictable space of resource extraction, trade and military manoeuvre. Yet planetary scales are jagged, linking the very small and the very large, and raise profound questions of knowledge, measurement, precaution, and limits. With a focus on the key constructs of "carbon space", "carbon budgets" and "net zero", the talk considers the challenges of scientifically representing a dynamic and changing climate system in the Paris Agreement at a time when humans are already acting beyond the limits of the planetary.
