Interview with Arnault Barichella

Arnault Barichella defended his PhD thesis in political science, "The UN Climate Change regime and the articulation of multi-level governance. A case study of the global cities of Paris, Boston and New York" in December 2022. He just started a post-doctoral researcher position and reflects in this interview on his experience as a PhD candidate at the CEE and Sciences Po. 
 

What is your current position?

I have just started a contract as a post-doctoral researcher in the social sciences for the New Energy Sustainable Mobilities (NESMO) project at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Université Paris-Saclay. This is an interdisciplinary project which combines the social sciences and engineering to research new technologies in the field of transportation, focusing on hydrogen motors more specifically. My role, as a political scientist, involves studying possibilities and prospects for deploying these new technologies across the Ile-de-France region, in particular plug-in hydrogen hybrid electric vehicles.

What did you write your thesis on?

My thesis, which was defended in December 2022, tackles two primary research questions. The first one relates to international politics, and focuses on the role of cities, territories, and non-state actors more generally, within the mechanisms of global climate governance as part of the COP process and the UNFCCC. Even though they cannot sign the Paris Accord in the same way as national governments, cities and sub-national entities have an increasingly important role to play in international climate negotiations.

The other part of my thesis, which relates to comparative politics, examines climate initiatives enacted by the cities and states/regions in the thesis sample for the United States (New York/NY and Boston/Massachusetts), and in France (Paris and Ile-de-France). More specifically, my PhD compares the mechanisms involved in the articulation of multilevel climate governance, contrasting the US federal system with the more centralised French paradigm. This part of my work will be published as a book by Palgrave Macmillan towards the Fall 2023 in the Energy, Climate and the Environment book series.

What did the CEE and Sciences Po bring to your doctoral experience?

I have received wonderful sponsorship from the CEE, and I take this opportunity to warmly thank all of its members and staff, who supported me throughout my five years of doctoral studies. My PhD supervisor, Pr. Colin Hay, gave me a wide margin of maneuver to study the themes that interested me most, whilst providing me with very detailed and precise feedback. He was also always available to meet and advise me upon request. Moreover, I was inspired by the seminars organized at the CEE and at Sciences Po, since many focused on issues relating to my thesis such as the role of cities and territories in the ecological transition. In addition to these scientific seminars, I was also lucky to be able to work at a research center with a very warm and convivial atmosphere, where tenured researchers gladly accept to meet with and advise doctoral students.

Thanks to Sciences Po’s international partnerships, I had the opportunity to spend one year at Harvard University in the US as a Visiting Fellow (2018-19), which was a very enriching and useful experience since it enabled me to conduct a large part of my field research. Finally, I have also been able to teach my own class since Spring 2020 entitled ‘Global Climate Politics: Comparative EU-US Perspectives’ for the undergraduate level at Sciences Po’s Paris campus. Each semester, this seminar welcomes around thirty students coming from all around the world, and addresses several of my PhD topics such as global climate governance processes established by the Paris Agreement, as well as a comparative analysis of climate policies in Europe and the United States, including the role of sub-national and non-state actors. The last class of each semester is organised around a simulation of the COP negotiations, where students choose their roles in advance. These classes have led to very rich, lively and quality exchanges with my students over the last few years, allowing me to discover a passion for teaching, which I hope to be able to pursue for the rest of my career.
 

Interview by Véronique Etienne, Knowledge Exchange Officer, CEE, February 2023.