Research Professor of European and international governance and sustainability transformations

I am Claire Dupont, Research Professor of European and international governance and sustainability transformations at Ghent University in Belgium.

I am interested in understanding whether and how societies transition to climate neutrality and sustainability in a fair and democratic manner. With a background in political science, specialising in European studies, I carry out research on the politics, policy and governance of the transformation to climate neutrality and sustainability, looking across climate, energy and environmental governance. I am interested in the interactions among policies, and politics and democratic governance more broadly. Given the wide range of challenges to both democracy and climate action, I am interested in finding pathways to strengthen both sustainability and democracy. While much of my work studies the European Union and its member states, my research also looks at how global dynamics and international (geo)politics influence EU (in)action.

I am a member of the Observatoire de la Politique Climatique (‘Climate Policy Observatory’) of Luxembourg, which is an independent scientific advisory body established under Luxembourg’s Climate Law. I am the Co-Chair of the European Academies Science Advisory Council‘s working group on the security of sustainable energy, together with Prof. Paula Kivimaa.

Until December 2024, I served as the the Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency.