This is a series of public lectures in which connoted scholars will present research addressing the ecological crisis and organization. Speakers will focus on their research’s concrete suggestions for how we can better organize and / or on the impact of their work for new and more productive forms of scholarly societal engagement today. The lecture series serves as a platform for discussion, networking, and collaboration among scholars, educators, students, and experts.

 Lecture 6: How to be(-come) a climate economic expert?

In a recent paper, Troels Krarup and Peter Karnøe demonstrate how, for more than three decades, the Danish Economic Councils have consistently opposed all forms of support favoring green energy technologies such as wind power and instead advocated a uniform carbon tax as the most efficient instrument for achieving climate and environmental goals. Significantly, while the councils’ advice has remained the same, wind power has transformed the energy system. In this seminar, the authors take their critique of the Danish Economic Councils as a point of departure for a discussion of expertise and the ecological crisis. Critiquing economic expertise is somewhat commonplace; offering an alternative economics less so. The seminar takes up the more difficult task that follows from their critique, reflecting not only on possible suggestions for an alternative economics, but also their own expert positions.

 The talk will draw extensively on the article ‘Carbon tax, not subsidies: three decades of Danish economic council advice against green industrial policy’. Troels Krarup, Peter Karnøe. Socio-Economic Review, Volume 24, Issue 3, July 2026, Pages 1689–1707, https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwag028