Mapping Environmental Trade-offs in the Americas

APS Project 2026–2027 — Institut des Amériques

Integration of Economic Interests in the Making of Environmental Governance

Project Summary

This structuring project aims to analyse the forms through which economic interests — particularly those stemming from extractive, industrial, and agro-industrial sectors — are integrated into environmental and climate governance arenas. Based on fieldwork conducted in Latin America and North America, it examines indirect, procedural, and legitimized practices of influence exercised by companies, consultants, experts, and sectoral representatives. By combining ethnography, network analysis, and collective observation, the project proposes a relational reading of ecological transition as a space of compromise, attenuation of ambitions, and reformulation of objectives.

Research Rationale

At COP28 in Dubai in 2023, the presidency of the conference was held by the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber — a situation that, for many observers, symbolized the tension between extractive sectors seeking legitimacy and the objectives of ecological transition. From the invitation of fossil fuel industry representatives to the promotion of carbon neutrality tied to carbon capture technologies, this episode highlighted a broader dynamic: interest groups and extractive, energy, or industrial companies no longer merely slow down or contest environmental policies — they actively integrate themselves into them and contribute to redefining their contours.

These dynamics are not new. For several years, a growing body of scholarship has analysed the role of large corporations in strategies aimed at diverting, blurring, or co-opting environmental norms, whether through lobbying, disinformation, the production of doubt, or institutional capture (Brulle, 2014; Dunlap & McCright, 2016; Beyers et al., 2008; Campbell & Laforce, 2016; Hall et al., 2024). In this perspective, the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) working group proposes defining climate obstruction as "any action (discourses, practices) carried out within scientific or political institutions dealing with climate change that has the effect of delaying, blocking, weakening or undermining climate action."

However, focusing exclusively on obstruction risks obscuring a wider range of dynamics through which economic actors intervene in climate governance as well in environmental governance. Between open opposition and explicit support for climate and environmental action lies a broad spectrum of intermediary practices: negotiated accommodations, procedural influence, strategic participation in governance arenas, reformulation of objectives, technicisation of debates, production of expertise, or selective integration of climate goals into economic strategies.

This project therefore proposes shifting the perspective by analysing climate governance through the notion of trade-offs. Rather than considering climate governance as a coherent process guided solely by scientific imperatives, the project approaches it as a space structured by compromises between environmental objectives, economic imperatives, trade dynamics, and extractive pressures.

In this perspective, climate trade-offs refer to the set of negotiations, arbitrations, accommodations, and reconfigurations through which climate policies are concretely produced. These trade-offs may take several forms:

• the partial integration of climate objectives into economic development strategies;
• indirect or procedural forms of obstruction;
• negotiated compromises between public and private actors;
• or the reformulation and attenuation of environmental ambitions through governance processes.

This framework makes it possible to move beyond the binary opposition between "pro-climate" and "anti-climate" actors and instead focus attention on the grey zones where climate governance is effectively produced.

The project also seeks to contribute to ongoing discussions on the transformation of environmental governance in the Americas. The region constitutes a particularly relevant field for analysing these dynamics, given the centrality of extractive activities, the strategic role of agro-industrial sectors, the asymmetries between North and South, and the growing importance of climate issues in trade and diplomatic relations.

Finally, the project aims to foster dialogue between researchers working on Latin America and those working on North America — two academic spaces that often remain relatively disconnected despite addressing similar issues related to extraction, trade, environmental governance, and climate politics.

Research Axes

Axis 1 — Climate Governance Arrangements and the Production of Compromises

The first axis focuses on the dispositifs and arenas through which climate trade-offs are produced. It seeks to analyse the institutional, procedural, and relational mechanisms through which economic actors participate in shaping climate governance.

Particular attention will be paid to international climate arenas (COPs, multilateral organizations, sectoral forums), but also to more localized governance spaces in which negotiations between public and private actors take place. The objective is to understand how certain actors gain access to these arenas, which forms of legitimacy they mobilize, and how climate norms are negotiated, reformulated, or weakened.

This axis also examines the role of technicization and expertise in the production of compromises. Climate governance increasingly relies on technical instruments, quantified indicators, standards, certifications, and scientific expertise that tend to depoliticize conflicts and frame climate issues as technical problems requiring managerial solutions.

The project therefore seeks to analyse how these dispositifs contribute to stabilizing particular definitions of climate problems and legitimate forms of intervention.

Axis 2 — Trajectories of Economic and Professional Actors

The second axis focuses on the trajectories and circulations of actors involved in climate governance: consultants, experts, representatives of professional organizations, lobbyists, NGOs, corporate actors, or international organizations.

The objective is to understand how these professional figures acquire legitimacy within climate governance spaces: what resources do they have access to? Which networks do they mobilize? Which repertoires of action do they deploy in order to influence regulatory processes?

By retracing their trajectories, institutional positions, and relational embeddedness, the project seeks to analyse the mechanisms through which these actors manage to impose their authority, participate in defining climate norms, and stabilize or reconfigure transition pathways according to their own interests.

Special attention will be paid to the circulation of actors across scales and sectors, as well as to the porous boundaries between public institutions, private companies, consulting firms, academia, and international organizations.

Axis 3 — Territorial Embeddedness of Climate Trade-offs: Territorial Effects, Local Appropriations, and Situated Conflicts

The third and final axis focuses on the concrete effects of this governance through "soft obstruction" on territories, particularly those affected by extractive projects, carbon offsetting schemes, or transition infrastructures (wind farms, photovoltaic plants, lithium mines, hydrogen facilities, "smart" electrical grids).

The objective is to examine how these global dynamics are adjusted to, embodied within, or come into conflict with localized social, ecological, and political configurations.

Particular attention will be paid to forms of appropriation, circumvention, or contestation carried out by local collectives, as well as to the differentiated effects of these projects on power relations, environmental inequalities, and imaginaries of transition.

Network Activities

The project aims to structure a trans-American network of researchers working on the modalities through which economic interests are integrated into climate governance. In order to foster collective reflection on methods, fieldwork, and analytical categories, a set of scientific activities will structure the programme between 2026 and 2027.

A hybrid inaugural seminar, planned for Spring 2026, will establish the theoretical and methodological foundations of the project. It will bring together researchers from different disciplines (political science, geography, sociology, anthropology, environmental studies) and regional backgrounds (Latin America, North America) in order to compare perspectives on the dispositifs, trajectories, and territorial embeddedness of compromises within climate governance.

This seminar will provide an opportunity to discuss the first materials produced through the collective investigation conducted during COP30 in 2025 as part of the CLIMACOP II project, as well as data shared by network members.

A cycle of hybrid thematic workshops (webinars) will subsequently contribute to the collective work. These workshops will notably address institutionalized forms of engagement by economic actors, indirect or procedural repertoires of action, issues related to access to governance arenas, and tensions surrounding the co-production of climate norms.

Particular attention will be devoted to the specific difficulties involved in investigating opaque spaces of power: restricted access to information, circumvention of access formats, and constraints weighing on interviewees.

Finally, the project seeks to encourage collective investigation practices in order to produce comparative data, strengthen fieldwork exchanges, and anchor the network in a shared effort to critically document forms of economic influence over climate policies.

In addition to participation in COP30, a collective field investigation involving five researchers will therefore be organized at the end of 2026 within an international forum yet to be determined (climate summit, sectoral conference, professional congress, or multilateral meeting), depending on institutional opportunities and the availability of network members.

This one-week mission will combine observation, interviews, and the collection of various materials, with the support of co-funding requested from partners such as the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) or the Agence française de développement (AFD).

A two-day conference will be organized in Paris (CREDA, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) in October 2027 in order to present the results to a broader audience, discuss prospects for comparison at other scales, and initiate the preparation of collective publications.

This event may be extended by a smaller workshop dedicated to the methodological assessment of the network and the consolidation of a long-term collaborative dynamic.

A collective publication in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese will extend the exchanges initiated within the framework of the project. It will take the form of either a thematic issue in a peer-reviewed academic journal or an edited volume structured around the programme's three research axes.

This work will seek to account for the diversity of field sites, approaches, and observed configurations while proposing a transversal reflection on the modalities of economic intervention in climate governance.

Particular care will be devoted to articulating empirical contributions with collectively mobilized analytical frameworks in order to produce a coherent object, accessible beyond disciplinary boundaries, and capable of contributing to debates on environmental transitions and their political reconfigurations.

Research Dissemination and Outreach

The dissemination of results occupies a central place within the project. We favour an open and accessible dissemination strategy to broaden the impact of the research beyond the traditional academic sphere.

A Hypotheses research blog will be created to document the progress of the project, publish reflective posts on ongoing fieldwork, and make collected data accessible to a broader public.

At the same time, audio or video capsules will be produced, giving voice to researchers and practitioners involved in field investigations. The objective is to produce short and engaging content that can be disseminated online to reach varied audiences (students, journalists, NGOs, etc.).

Finally, project participants will present their results during a two-day conference organized at Campus Condorcet. These discussions and advances will give rise to a collective publication.

Particular attention will be paid to the production of a multilingual synthesis (French/English/Spanish/Portuguese) to strengthen the accessibility of results at the trans-American scale.

Funding and Support

This project is funded by the Institut des Amériques, the CREDA (Centre de recherche et de documentation sur les Amériques), and PRODIG.