As climate change is increasingly framed as a planetary crisis demanding rapid transformation, the COP has become a highly institutionalised arena where progress is often incremental, procedural, and mediated through highly specific policy instruments such as CO2-accounting, carbon markets, credits, and climate finance mechanisms. 

This Masterclass takes the tension between planetary ambition and the political, technical, and negotiated realities of the COP process seriously, asking what it means for those seeking to engage with, influence, or critically analyse the COP as a site for addressing planetary challenges.

Over two days, the Masterclass offers participants analytical tools, shared conceptual frameworks, and space for dialogue and reflection on the present and future potential of the COP process – and the possibilities of influencing it. 

The Masterclass is taught by three expert instructors - and a keynote speaker - who together represent the core constituencies of the Center for New Critical Politics and Governance: scholars, policymakers, and activists. It brings together researchers and professionals from NGOs, think tanks, and the public sector to examine the practices, power relations, and political solutions that shape contemporary climate negotiations at the COP. 

In intimate settings, participants will work with questions such as: Who holds what forms of agency and capital within the COP? Which agendas – beyond climate mitigation and adaptation – drive negotiations? How do different actors mobilise expertise, legitimacy, and access in attempts to influence outcomes? And what scope exists for advancing a planetary agenda under conditions of mounting pressure on multilateral institutions? 

Instructors:

• Annette Skovsted Hansen, Associate Professor, Department of Global Studies, Aarhus University
• Jonathan Krull, Senior Policy Officer on behalf of the German Ministry for Environment and Climate Action
• James Quilligan, Senior Research Fellow, Center for New Critical Politics and Governance

Keynote speaker: 

• Jens Mattias Clausen, Director of EU Division and COP Lead, CONCITO

Moderators: 

• Hagen Schulz-Forberg, Associate Professor, and Frederik Vestergaard Hyttel, PhD researcher, Aarhus University

By the end of the masterclass, participants will have:

• Acquired a deep understanding of the workings, practices, and instruments of international climate negotiations applicable to research, policy work, and activism
• Developed a clear map of the ideas, actors, and forms of capital dominating sites of international climate governance
• Reflected on the positionality and possible agency of researchers, policymakers, or advocates on climate issues
• Obtained concrete tools and strategies for intervening analytically or politically in the field
• Fostered cross-sector dialogue and network

• 3 lectures + discussion
• 3 workshops
• 1 roundtable
• 1 keynote dinner speech