Personal profile

Overview

My research is about the politics of climate change. I research how patterns of globalisation and development affect climate governance, focusing especially on the phenomena of carbon markets. I am part of the Global Political Economy research cluster and I participate in the Environmental Politics Group.

Teaching

In 2023/24, I will be teaching MA modules on The Politics of Global Climate Change, Critical Environmental Politics, and The Politics of Money and Finance, plus the second year undergraduate module Environmental Politics. I am the Programme Director for the MA in International Political Economy and the Deputy Undergraduate Dissertation Tutor. I am available to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Biography

My previous degrees include an an Honours degree in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Glasgow (2010) and an MSc in Climate Change and Development from the University of Sussex (2011). I worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Development Studies, on issues of low carbon and climate resilient development, before joining the University of Manchester to begin a PhD in 2012. I completed my PhD at the Global Development Institute in 2016 with funding from the Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value. My doctoral research examined the cultural political economy of carbon markets, involving fieldwork in Europe and India. I began working as a Lecturer in Politics in 2017. I have also worked part-time in the Climate Policy team at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance during 2020-21. 

Research interests

My research has focused on the tensions and contradictions associated with carbon offsetting as a problematic feature of international responses to the climate crisis. I am particularly interested in how carbon trading and its cultural dynamics connect with the policy processes of neoliberal climate governance. I work with critical theory, including psychoanalytic approaches to the study of politics. I am currently researching links between carbon trading and crypto-currency initiatives.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Global inequalities

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics where Robbie Watt is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
  • 1 Similar Profiles