Grant of £244,691 for Climate Policy and Political Parties Project
Professor Robert Ladrech (SPIRE) and Professor Neil Carter (University of York) have been successful in securing an ESRC grant of £244,691 for a project on Climate Policy and Political Parties.
Professor Ladrech, as Principal Investigator, will lead the comparative study, which is a two-year project that aims to understand and explain the way mainstream political parties in Western Europe develop their positions on climate change policy.
It will examine the impact on party policy development of domestic factors, including internal party dynamics and party system competition, environmental and business interests, and external factors notably European Union legislation and international commitments.
Professor Robert Ladrech took his M.A. and PhD. at the University of California at Santa Barbara and taught in the U.S. before coming to Keele. His research focuses on the relationship between party politics and European integration, with a particular interest in social democratic parties. He is also, more generally, interested in the impact of the European Union on domestic politics (Europeanization). He recently completed a British Academy-funded project on ‘Social Democratic Parties and Climate Change’ and has submitted a follow-up grant application to the ESRC.