Theresa Scavenius

Theresa Scavenius is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sustainability and Planning at the Technical Faculty of IT and Design, Aalborg University. Her research centers on climate governance and politics with emphasis on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and democratic institutions.

Her primary research interests include climate governance, climate politics, democratic institutions in climate action, IPCC knowledge production, and the role of non-peer-reviewed literature in climate modeling. She investigates emerging forms of climate denialism and develops the concept of climate states (Klimastaten), analyzing how environmental considerations integrate into political and economic systems.

Recent publications (2022-2025) demonstrate a concentrated focus on the IPCC, mapping its epistemic geography over three decades, examining grey literature in scenario modeling, and identifying new generations of climate denialism. These works bridge climate science, political science, and environmental policy to dissect science-policy interfaces and knowledge hierarchies.

Scavenius has supervised one PhD student and led two research projects:

• Mapping the epistemic geographies of the IPCC 1990-2022 (2023-2026, active): Analyzes knowledge production and circulation within the IPCC across 30 years.
• GREEN TRANSITION PATHS (2018-2021, completed): Investigated pathways for systemic green transitions.

She actively contributes to the Geoinformatics & Earth Observation research group at Aalborg University, engaging in collaborative work on spatial climate analysis.