HISTORICALCLIMATOLOGY.COM
  • Home
    • Archived Best of the Web
  • Features
    • Archived Features
  • Interviews
    • Climate History Podcast
  • Projects
  • Resources
    • Tools
    • Databases >
      • CLIWOC
    • Bibliography
    • Videos
    • Links
    • Tipping Points
  • Network
    • On Facebook
  • About
    • Our Team
    • Definitions

Article explores how climate scholars can shape climate policy.

7/3/2014

 
Picture
In order to keep global warming below 2° C, there is desperate need for urgency in curbing greenhouse gas emissions. However, national and international policymakers have yet to take action on the scale that would prevent catastrophe. In the most recent issue of Nature Climate Change, Cambridge University geographer David Christian Rose explains why even the governments that have publicly acknowledged the threat of climate change have been so slow to address it. He then introduces practical ways for researchers to communicate more effectively to policymakers.

Most scholars understandably assume that policy should respond to the weight of evidence. To them, influencing policy is simply a matter of articulating abundant evidence with clarity. However, Rose argues that evidence derived from “scientific rationality” is just one factor among the many that influence policy. Rose draws on principles developed by political scientist John Kingdon, who holds that even ideas backed by the best scientific evidence do not become policy unless they fit prevailing political conditions.

Picture
To Rose, nothing is more misguided than the continued focus on producing better evidence, undertaken most famously by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Increasing the certainly of anthropogenic change from 90% (in the IPCC’s fourth report), to 95% (in its fifth), does not account for the ways in which policy is actually formulated.   

Rose argues that, in climate change negotiations, progress is rarely impeded by a lack of sufficiently reliable evidence. Instead, Rose claims that talks break down because of questions such as: “Who wins? Who loses? Who decides?” Scientists and other scholars should therefore figure out how their evidence can be presented to policymakers in ways that give it maximum leverage alongside other influences. 

Scientists and other climate researchers have a tendency to advertise the peril of inaction. Their frequently apocalyptic narratives are both evidence-based, and intended to galvanize policymakers and the public into action. However, Rose finds that telling “good news stories” can be much more effective, because policy is rarely agreed upon without concrete evidence that it will work. By better communicating these stories, academics and activists alike can demonstrate that adaptation is both possible, and applicable in policy. 

Finally, Rose argues that climate change policy recommendations presented by scientists should be attached to issues that are political winners. As an example, he explains that European researchers campaigning against the trade in wild birds were only able to influence policy when they tied the issue to the spread of bird flu. Given the other political influences faced by policymakers, animal welfare was a political non-starter, but public health was not. 

Ultimately, the guidelines presented by Rose will strike many academics as cynical recommendations that threaten to turn scientists into lobbyists. Academics, they might claim, should have an unimpeachable voice precisely because they do not employ the tactics used, for example, by big oil lobbyists. Some activists may hold that the inability of political systems to respond directly to evidence is, if left unaltered, a long-term threat to meaningful environmentalism.   

However, we do not live in a world where these lofty ideals can always yield practical, short-term solutions of the kind necessary to mitigate, and adapt to, global warming. Rose therefore presents a convincing case: if researchers want policymakers to take action, they should start thinking like policymakers. 

~Dagomar Degroot

David Christian Rose, "Five ways to enhance the impact of climate science." Nature Climate CHange 4 (2014): 522-524. 

    ​Archives

    March 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    December 2010
    October 2010

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Animal History
    Anthropocene
    Arctic
    Australia
    China
    Climate And Conflict
    Climate And Memory
    Climate History
    Climate Migration
    Climate Policy
    Climate Risks
    Climatology
    Columbian Exchange
    Conferences
    Dendrochronology
    Energy
    Environmental History
    Field Work
    Geoengineering
    Glaciology
    Global Warming
    Historical Climatology
    History Of Climate And Society (HCS)
    History Of Science
    Interdisciplinary Methodology
    IPCC
    Late Antique Little Ice Age
    Little Ice Age
    Maps
    Medieval
    Methodology
    Nuclear Power
    Paleoclimatology
    Pedagogy
    Politics Of Climate Change
    Resilience And Adaptation
    Teaching Climate
    Volcanoes
    Weather Modification

    RSS Feed

  • Home
    • Archived Best of the Web
  • Features
    • Archived Features
  • Interviews
    • Climate History Podcast
  • Projects
  • Resources
    • Tools
    • Databases >
      • CLIWOC
    • Bibliography
    • Videos
    • Links
    • Tipping Points
  • Network
    • On Facebook
  • About
    • Our Team
    • Definitions