Global anthropogenic carbon emissions have continued to rise, as have cumulative CO2 in the atmosphere since the mid-19th century. Despite the near-global consensus among the scientific community, public perceptions of the urgency to fight climate change differ between countries and have fluctuated over time. Heterogeneity in ecological thinking posits a problem because limiting global warming requires cohesion and coordination among the players of the socioeconomic system in both developed and developing countries. Specifically regarding the latter, the rise of China in the international arena, along with Brazil's search for preserving the Amazon Forest, speaks loudly of the importance of these countries and their regions to the problem at hand.

Most studies on the political economy of climate transition have wrongly treated advanced and emerging economies as similar systems in distinct positions of a linear development path. This is a critical limitation as they are structurally different. Developing countries are populated by a large informal sector that accounts for up to half of economic activity. Such a characteristic is one of the elements that define the Global South in contraposition to nations in the Global North. The role of the informal sector in economic development remains controversial, let alone the implications of its existence to a successful green transition.

MACRO-HET aims to provide a detailed analysis of the implications of heterogeneity in ecological thinking along the global North-South divide. We know little about the feedback mechanisms from the economy-environment to the composition of green attitudes under high levels of informality. Moreover, the Global South is divided into two groups. Survey data indicates that in Asia, only 1/3 of the general public perceives climate change as a very serious threat. Such figures contrast with those of Latin America, where more than 70% understand the seriousness of climate emergencies. We need to learn more about the endogenous forces explaining the emergence of these equilibria. Based on such analysis, MACRO-HET will provide policymakers with insights on this dimension of climate change.

Investigating how environmental attitudes adapt and can be coordinated requires a complex systems approach. Social scientists have just recently started to explore how boundedly rational agents, who do not fully understand their complex environment and use simple decision heuristics, communicate and learn, leading to emergent macro climate-related behaviours as the aggregate outcome of interactions. Our main ambition in this project is to provide a coherent narrative that adds to ongoing efforts of international collaboration to promote innovation-fuelled and inclusive development, addressing the greatest challenge of our generation.