Arguments
Climate Trunk - Political Economy
Posted on 9 August 2026 by BaerbelW
In April 2026 we published a guest blog post by John Lang in which he introduced his "Climate Trunk" graphics project and website. Since then, he has been adding one graphic per week and plans to keep going for about 2 years rounding out the big picture of human-caused climate change graphic by graphic. In this blog post we'll show-case the graphics related to political economy and will keep adding more as they get published.
How interests, incumbents and competing priorities shape the speed of the transition.
#5 - The New Energy Calculus
The pursuit of clean energy is no longer climate policy. It is increasingly a strategy for security, affordability, development, sovereignty and lower import bills – reshaping how governments think about energy and national interest.
From three to six
#6 - But we are less than 1% - Emissions
No country is too small to matter. Nations that each emit around 1% of global CO2 may look negligible on their own, but together they produce about 30% of the total – roughly as much as China – so if they sit it out, the maths doesn’t stack up.
Climate change is a global collective action problem. There are no neglibile emitters.
#7 - But we are less than 1% - Consumption
No country is too small to matter. Even after emissions embedded in trade are reassigned to consuming economies, nations emitting around 1% or less of global CO2 still account for roughly 28% of the total, almost as much as China alone.
Climate change is a global collective action problem. There are no neglibile emitters.
#8 - One system, two stories
China is both the world’s largest source of emissions and its biggest clean energy force – still deeply fossil-fuelled, yet driving the technologies, investment and electrification reconfiguring the global energy system.
One system, two stories. Where the fossil-fuelled past meets the electrified future.
.. to be continued
Follow these links to dive into the other Climate Trunk rings: Science, Impacts, Economics, Governance, Solutions, Energy, Daily Life.
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