Abstract
Climate change decision-making has emerged in recent decades as an area of research and practice, expanding on an earlier focus on climate policy. Defined as the study of decisions relevant for climate change, it draws on developments in decision science, particularly advances in the study of cognitive and deliberative processes in individuals and organizations. The effects of climate, economic, social, and other framings on decision-making have been studied, often showing that nonclimate frames can be as effective as, or more effective than, climate frames in promoting decision-making and action. The concept of urgency, linked to the ideas of climate crisis and climate emergency, has taken on importance in recent years. Research on climate decision-making has influenced numerous areas of climate action, including nudges and other behavioral interventions, corporate social responsibility, and Indigenous decision-making. Areas of transformational change, such as strategic retreat in the face of sea-level rise, are emerging.
Highlights
Leads to later decisions made by the same individual or organization, and on interpersonal and interorganizational spillover, where decisions made by one individual or organization lead to decisions made by others
CCRDs differ with respect to how they are most often framed or understood by decision-makers, partly due to how they are discussed in public discourse: Whereas some behaviors or decisions have been strongly linked with climate change impacts or implications and are viewed by many people through the lens of climate change, others are less frequently framed in climate change–related terms
It locates this field in a context of deep apprehension about climate change and a strong public concern to include a wider range of forms of action in addition to policy
Summary
This article reviews the emerging body of literature on climate change decision-making, with particular attention to decision-making processes. Its intellectual roots are older, tracing back to the middle of the past century, with the study of limits to rationality in economics and sociology, research on judgment and decision-making in cognitive and social psychology, and work on natural hazards in geography and adaptation in anthropology We attribute this growth to three major sources: the emergence of complementary bodies of research on limits to rationality; developments in the fields of governance and management; and shifts in climate risk management, broadly understood. The second source draws on the emergence of a wide interest in the notion of governance— understood broadly as the exercise of political, economic, and administrative authority necessary to manage the affairs of a collective body [9], including governmental agencies and private firms and civil society organizations This idea represents a broadening from a consideration of policy (understood to be associated with branches of the state) to a wider examination of action by a variety of decision-making individuals and organizations. This attention to a broad array of climate decisions provides a motivation for this article
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