Co-producing European climate science and policy: a cautionary note on the making of useful knowledge

Abstract

This paper examines the tight coupling between European climate science and policy. Drawing upon the analytical idiom of co-production it examines how knowledge-making practices are incorporated into European climate policy-making, and more importantly, how EU climate policy has influenced the funding, making and interpretation of useful European climate policy research. The paper identifies a tension between the critical/reflexive ambition built into the co-production idiom, and the more utilitarian interpretation of the term. Whereas the former sets out to expose and interrogate the ontological assumptions underpinning public policy, the latter seeks to be useful by responding to the knowledge needs of societal decision-makers. This tension is analysed through a case study of the integrated research project ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies: Supporting European Climate Policy) funded under the 6th Framework Programme of the EU.