Maboudi NSF
Research Grant News
Maboudi to Build First Global Database on Climate Policy Implementation
Tofigh Maboudi, PhD, a political science professor in Loyola University Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences, and his collaborator at American University, Todd Eisenstadt, were awarded $558,000 in linked grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help build a comprehensive database for evaluating the implementation of national climate laws, policies, and practices.
Climate change is poorly understood by social scientists, partly because no uniform global measure exists to track climate policy-generating institutions across nations.
“Dr. Maboudi’s groundbreaking scholarly work addresses one of the defining issues of our time,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “His research will inform and empower changemakers around the globe, helping to build a more just and sustainable world.”
Maboudi, who became interested in studying environmental constitutionalism, climate laws, and climate litigation, was struck by how little is known about the implementation of national climate laws and policies, despite climate change being one of society’s most urgent challenges.
Maboudi partnered with Eisenstadt to start the Climate Laws, Institutions, Policies, and Practices in Nation-States (CLIPPS) project.
“We hear a lot about countries making big climate promises, but very little about whether those promises are actually kept,” said Maboudi. “This project allows us the opportunity to build the first comprehensive, independent dataset that goes beyond rhetoric to assess the reality of climate governance in over 80 countries.”
Maboudi is motivated by the thought that this type of work could help policymakers and citizens take action that truly makes a difference, especially in countries most vulnerable to climate impacts.
This multi-year project will gather data from expert surveys on the climate policies of 80 nations. It will assess national guidelines with respect to practices across both mitigation (namely, energy, industry, transportation, agriculture, land use and forestry, buildings, and waste and wastewater) and adaptation (water resources, coastal zones, urban planning, public health, etc.) sectors prioritized in international agreements.
The data will be freely available and disseminated through collaborations with global partners and serve the public by helping to close the gap between climate policy promises and on-the-ground realities.
Maboudi and Eisenstadt will have a team of graduate students helping in every stage of the research process.
“These are rare, hands-on opportunities in the social sciences, and they provide the kind of practical experience that directly translates into professional skills,” noted Maboudi. “For some of them, this will be their first time contributing to a high-profile, multi-year, globally significant project. Whether they go on to careers in academia, government, or the nonprofit sector, they will leave with a strong methodological toolkit, a deep understanding of climate policy challenges, and a track record of published, collaborative research that can set them apart in competitive fields.”
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
Tofigh Maboudi, PhD, a political science professor in Loyola University Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences, and his collaborator at American University, Todd Eisenstadt, were awarded $558,000 in linked grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help build a comprehensive database for evaluating the implementation of national climate laws, policies, and practices.
Climate change is poorly understood by social scientists, partly because no uniform global measure exists to track climate policy-generating institutions across nations.
“Dr. Maboudi’s groundbreaking scholarly work addresses one of the defining issues of our time,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “His research will inform and empower changemakers around the globe, helping to build a more just and sustainable world.”
Maboudi, who became interested in studying environmental constitutionalism, climate laws, and climate litigation, was struck by how little is known about the implementation of national climate laws and policies, despite climate change being one of society’s most urgent challenges.
Maboudi partnered with Eisenstadt to start the Climate Laws, Institutions, Policies, and Practices in Nation-States (CLIPPS) project.
“We hear a lot about countries making big climate promises, but very little about whether those promises are actually kept,” said Maboudi. “This project allows us the opportunity to build the first comprehensive, independent dataset that goes beyond rhetoric to assess the reality of climate governance in over 80 countries.”
Maboudi is motivated by the thought that this type of work could help policymakers and citizens take action that truly makes a difference, especially in countries most vulnerable to climate impacts.
This multi-year project will gather data from expert surveys on the climate policies of 80 nations. It will assess national guidelines with respect to practices across both mitigation (namely, energy, industry, transportation, agriculture, land use and forestry, buildings, and waste and wastewater) and adaptation (water resources, coastal zones, urban planning, public health, etc.) sectors prioritized in international agreements.
The data will be freely available and disseminated through collaborations with global partners and serve the public by helping to close the gap between climate policy promises and on-the-ground realities.
Maboudi and Eisenstadt will have a team of graduate students helping in every stage of the research process.
“These are rare, hands-on opportunities in the social sciences, and they provide the kind of practical experience that directly translates into professional skills,” noted Maboudi. “For some of them, this will be their first time contributing to a high-profile, multi-year, globally significant project. Whether they go on to careers in academia, government, or the nonprofit sector, they will leave with a strong methodological toolkit, a deep understanding of climate policy challenges, and a track record of published, collaborative research that can set them apart in competitive fields.”
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”