26. 5. 2026

This episode explores African agency in global climate governance, moving beyond narratives that portray African states solely as vulnerable recipients of climate policy. 

Drawing on debates in International Relations, environmental politics, and African climate futures, Dr Carl Death examines how African actors negotiate, contest, and reimagine climate governance across local, continental, and global arenas. 

Carl Death

Carl Death is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on environmental politics in Africa, with a particular interest in critical and postcolonial approaches. 

Publications:

The Green Economy in South Africa: Global Discourses and Local Politics

Four Discourses of the Green Economy in the Global South

Green States in Africa: Beyond the Usual Suspects

Africanfuturist Socio‐Climatic Imaginaries and Nnedi Okorafor’s Wild Necropolitics

Climate Fiction, Climate Theory: Decolonising Imaginations of Global Futures

Unfamiliar Families and Disturbing Climate Futures

Narrating Transitions to Low Carbon Futures: The Role of Long-Term Strategies in Fossil Fuel Producing Emerging Economies

African Climate Futures

Content

00:00 – Introduction
02:30 – African agency in global climate governance: realities versus stereotypes
10:21 – Writing climate transition differently: fiction as method
13:32 – Universal models and African political economies
18:04 – Pan-Africanism and coordination in climate governance
23:25 – Key actors in Africa’s climate and energy transition
27:19 – Climate fiction and African agency: insights from fifteen authors
32:49 – Selection and context of African climate fiction
38:37 – Postcolonial, feminist, and queer perspectives on African climate futures
43:47 – Ecopolitical imaginaries explained
48:01 – Beyond limited case studies in African climate scholarship
54:51 – Challenges in writing the book
58:51 – Local politics and environmental governance
01:02:25 – Civil society and grassroots climate action
01:08:59 – Under-researched areas in African climate politics