Maxwell School News and Commentary

“Sustainability Spectacle in the Gulf,” authored by Professor of Geography and the Environment Natalie Koch, was published in Current History.

“I don't think COP29 delivered the way many developing countries wanted. It was called the finance COP but you could call it a cop out in terms of how well the countries pledged a fraction of the needed finance. That goal of $1.3 trillion a year becoming only $300 billion a year now,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

“Local Government Environmental Policy Innovation: Emerging Regulation of GHG Emissions in the Transportation-for-Hire Industry,” co-authored by Assistant Teaching Professor of Policy Studies Austin Zwick and alumna Karina Freeland '23 B.A. (PSt), was published in Sustainability.

“When you are looking at the Gulf countries, you see that a lot of these sustainability projects are very large, and they’re very loud about them, but they hide the fact that, in fact, the rest of society is not at all sustainable,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment, says the VP debate was “evidence of the sad state of our climate discourse.“

So much of the response following disasters can feel piecemeal and reactive, says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of poltical science. “Every dollar we put into prevention is going to be a lot more efficiently spent,” she explains. In a world reshaped by climate change, “this idea that there’s safe places you can go hide is unrealistic.”

“The type of damage that you'll see is to property, to infrastructure, to roads and highways, but also to critical infrastructure like hospitals and power stations. And this will be devastating. It will be in the many billions of dollars,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. 

Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, has edited and contributed to “Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice” (Routledge, 2024).

 In the book (Central European University Press, 2024), Azra Hromadžić, associate professor of anthropology, explores how residents of Bihać, a town in northwest Bosnia, mobilized to block construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Una River in 2015. 

The Maxwell School professor talked about the effects of climate change and importance of geographical knowledge during her remarks for the Voices from the Global South series.