Abstract
AbstractBuilding on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) review of how to make its Assessment Reports (ARs) more accessible in the future, the research reported here assesses the extent to which the ARs are a useful tool through which scientific advice informs local decision-making on climate change in the United Kingdom. Results from interviews with local policy representatives and three workshops with UK academics, practitioners and local decision makers are presented. Drawing on these data, we outline three key recommendations made by participants on how the IPCC ARs can be better utilized as a form of scientific advice to inform local decision-making on climate change. First, to provide more succinct summaries of the reports paying close attention to the language, content, clarity, context and length of these summaries; second, to better target and frame the reports from a local perspective to maximize engagement with local stakeholders; and third, to work with local decision makers to better understand how scientific advice on climate change is being incorporated in local decision-making. By adopting these, the IPCC would facilitate local decision-making on climate change and provide a systematic review of how its reports are being used locally. We discuss implications of these recommendations and their relevance to the wider debate within and outside the IPCC as to the most effective way the IPCC can more effectively tailor its products to user needs without endangering the robustness of its scientific findings. This article is published as part of a collection on scientific advice to governments.
Highlights
Building on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) review of how to make its Assessment Reports (ARs) more accessible in the future, the research reported here assesses the extent to which the ARs are a useful tool through which scientific advice informs local decision-making on climate change in the United Kingdom
From the large amount of data arising from the interviews and workshops, we focus on four elements that emerged from our analysis of the data, of which initial findings were discussed at the IPCC’s Expert Meeting on Communication (Painter, 2015b): the general value and usage of the IPCC products; the language and clarity of the reports; their usefulness in helping local decisionmaking; and recommendations made by participants for the IPCC in the future
The frequent use of WGI is in part due to what the IPCC represents: an international body created to assess the science of climate change and provide rigorous and balanced scientific information to decision makers because of its scientific and intergovernmental nature
Summary
Building on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) review of how to make its Assessment Reports (ARs) more accessible in the future, the research reported here assesses the extent to which the ARs are a useful tool through which scientific advice informs local decision-making on climate change in the United Kingdom. In February 2015 at a meeting held in Nairobi, the IPCC assessed submissions on how it could review its future work, in particular related to the frequency and scheduling of reports, the structure and operations of the IPCC (notably to increase the number of members from developing countries in the IPCC Bureau from 31 to 34), making reports more user friendly, making the Summary for Policy Makers (SPMs) more useful, and enhancing the role of developing countries (IPCC, 2015) This built on previous feedback provided by the political community on how the IPCC could revise its processes to promote greater transparency and inclusivity in the authors and experts which participate in the WG outputs to ensure a more balanced contribution across gender, geography, experience. It suggested that the IPCC: Deal more effectively with the increasing complexity and volume of material that needed to be synthesized in its ARs, looking at the challenges faced in different geographical regions and the need to meet the needs of different end users; Adopt a more flexible approach to communication and expand its product range, considering options for utilization of social media; Consider the requirements of its end users such as policymakers, decision-makings and end users in a timely manner (for example, consider the more frequent publication of reports and/or special reports); Consider revising its structure in addressing the silo approach adopted by each of the WGs, and encouraging reports to be coordinated and written by multi-disciplinary teams (for example, across WGs)
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