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Abstract:
Global momentum towards restricting the production of climate-heating fossil fuels is increasing, with important implications for pathways to development and prosperity beyond fossil fuels. Yet understandings of the comparative political dynamics driving this process are lacking. Based on original quantitative and qualitative research in eight first-mover countries that have unilaterally adopted supply-side policies to limit fossil fuel production (Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Greenland, Sweden and the UK), we identify overarching lessons that can be derived from the experience to date of these countries regarding (i) the drivers of these policies, (ii) the specific forms they take, and (iii) how effective are they at leaving fossil fuels in the ground. This enhances our understanding of this critical new frontier in climate governance by embedding analysis in the political economy of development in these countries.
Bios:
Peter Newell is professor of international relations at the University of Sussex and cofounder of and research director at the Rapid Transition Alliance. He has previously worked at the Universities of Oxford, Warwick, and East Anglia in the United Kingdom and at FLACSO Argentina. His recent books include Power Shift: The Global Political Economy of the Energy Transition; Changing Our Ways: Behaviour Change and the Climate Crisis; Global Green Politics; and States of Transition: From Governing the Environment to Transforming Society. He leads the SUS-POL project on which this research is based and was awarded in 2025 the BISA Prize for Distinguished Contribution to International Relations.
Lukas Slothuus is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex, working on the SUS-POL project and leading the research in Scandinavia. Before joining Sussex, he was a fellow at LSE, where he taught an interdisciplinary course on the climate crisis. His PhD, from the University of Edinburgh, focused on the political theory of social transformation. He has published in the journals Political Studies, Constellations, Global Intellectual History, and Energy Research and Social Science.
Freddie Daley is a research associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex and research assistant and communications lead on the SUS-POL project. He is coauthor of the book Changing Our Ways: Behaviour Change and the Climate Crisis and of articles in the journals Earth Systems Governance, Global Sustainability, Environmental Politics, and Energy Research and Social Science.
Daniela Soto Hernández is a social anthropologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex, working on the SUS-POL project and leading the research in Latin America. Her PhD in international development, from the same university, looked at decolonizing debates around energy transition and lithium extraction in South America. She has worked as a researcher and consultant for more than twelve years and has published in journals such as Feminist Economics, the Journal of Peasant Studies, and the Canadian Journal of Development Studies.