Abstract The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are the key scenarios used by the climate change research community for evaluating mitigation pathways and the costs and challenges of meeting the Paris goals as well as climate risks along these different pathways. Despite ample evidence that political factors – such as institutional strength, rule of law-based accountability, and violent conflict – are critical determinants of climate action and vulnerability to climate hazards, the SSPs currently acknowledge but do not include quantified political factors systematically. We argue that without integrating political development into socioeconomic scenarios for climate mitigation and adaptation, projections are unlikely to reflect the challenges from climate change nor provide serious guidance on the political barriers to climate action. Consequently, models under-estimate climate risks. It is of immediate concern to extend the SSPs by integrating relevant political factors. In this paper, we examine how political development co-evolves with and influences climate futures, covering a wide range of issues from institutions to armed conflict. We showcase existing quantified political factors and the state of the art of the research on political futures, which may inform current SSP update processes. By outlining a research agenda to explore opportunities to integrate the co-evolution of political factors with socioeconomic, technical, and environmental developments as integral part of scenarios, we aim to contribute to the building blocks for a new generation of climate scenarios.