Postdoktor ved Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET)

UiB - Knowledge that shapes society UiB shall be among Europe's leading universities, internationally recognized for high quality in research and education. As a societal institution, we shall contribute to sustainable and democratic development and be an attractive and inclusive place to study and work. Video: https://youtu.be/i4SDcLir6Oc Postdoctoral Research Fellow position The Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), University of Bergen (UiB), is recruiting a postdoctoral research fellow for a period of three years. About the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET) CET is an interdisciplinary research centre that aims at producing actionable knowledge about how to achieve deep, rapid and sustainable transformation of society to meet the climate challenge. CET is based at the UiB Faculty of Social Sciences and works closely with scientists from a variety of disciplines. CET conducts research on how climate change and transformation are experienced and acted upon by individuals, communities, policymakers and organizations. More information about CET’s research focus can be found on the website: https://www.uib.no/en/cet . The postdoctoral research fellow will have their workplace at CET and is expected to contribute to making CET a dynamic and productive academic environment. About the project/work tasks: The Paris Agreement requires countries, cities and companies to continuously increase the ambition of their climate commitments. Yet there is no widely accepted way to assess whether a climate pledge is both fair and sufficiently ambitious. This postdoctoral research fellow will contribute to Paris Ambition project , funded by the Research Council of Norway, which aims at developing actionable fairness and ambition assessment tools to support decision-makers in implementing global climate goals. This project seeks to develop new conceptual and analytical frameworks to inform international climate negotiations, national climate policy, climate litigation and corporate climate target setting. Assessing climate ambition remains a major methodological challenge in climate governance with methodologies applied to different types of actors based on incompatible assumptions. The project considers both the norms that shape climate commitments and the norms used to evaluate their fairness and ambition by governments, civil society, courts and investors. The project draws on the fair share literature – on the allocation of the globally remaining emissions space into national allocations – and legal considerations regarding the role of non-state actors in achieving global and national goals. The project is structured around five working packages on: 1) How can international financial support contribute to countries achieving their fair share emissions allocations? 2) How can fair-share principles inform subnational climate targets? 3) What are the costs of climate damages resulting from countries exceeding their fair-share emissions allocations? 4) How can countries demonstrate their Highest Possible Ambition, as required under the Paris Agreement, and what does this imply for non-state actors? 5) What constitutes an ambitious corporate target and how does it contribute to global and national climate goals? This project is designed to inform rapid climate action thanks to established collaborations with leading researchers in other research institutions, jurists and societal actors (NGOs working on international climate negotiations, climate litigation and climate policies). We are looking for a curious and creative researcher who enjoys developing new methods, working across disciplines and contributing to internationally visible research. The hired postdoc will become part of the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation, an interdisciplinary research centre based in social science. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to help establish new analytical approaches that could shape future research, policy and practice. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the project, a team will be hired to bring complementary skills, possibly from the fields of integrated assessment modelling, governance, climate policy, climate impact modelling and economics. Experience with socio-economic modelling (e.g. integrated assessment models) is particularly relevant to WPs 1, 4 and 5, while expertise in climate impact assessment or the social cost of carbon is particularly valuable to WP3 and 5. Perspectives from climate governance and climate law are particularly relevant to WPs 2 and 5 and contribute to the broader objectives of the project. Applicants to the current position can target any of these parts of the project. Each of the WPs is expected to result in submissions to leading journals, with team members taking the lead on different papers. While the project has defined objectives, the successful candidate will have considerable freedom to shape the scientific direction of their work, develop new collaborations and pursue innovative research questions aligned with the overall aims of the project. The successful candidate will be supported in developing an independent research profile and competitive funding applications that support the further development of this research agenda. Qualifications and personal qualities: The applicant must: - Hold a PhD (or equivalent degree) within disciplines relevant for the project (such as climate policy, data science, economic governance, climate impact modelling, environmental science, geography). Applicants can explain the relevance of their disciplinary background in the application. The applicants must have submitted their doctoral thesis for assessment prior to the application deadline. It is a condition of employment that the PhD has been awarded. - Have a documented track record of publications and research development within the thematic area of the position. - Be able to work independently and to cooperate w