The IPCC and key tensions in global climate politics

Abstract

While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) portrays itself as a neutral, scientific body, presenting the conclusions of thousands of climate researchers to policy-makers, its reports are at the same time routinely contested. In this short article we show that this is because those who seek to either criticise the IPCC, and/or shape the summaries of its key reports (summaries that governments can directly approve), recognise the IPCC’s power in shaping the global response to climate change. We explore some key conflicts that have endured since the IPCC’s establishment in 1988, notably over: how scientists seek to demarcate the boundarybetween science and politics within the organisation; the underrepresentation of expertise from the global South in IPCC processes, and; attempts to undermine the authority of the IPCC by attacking the authors, the assessment practice, and the knowledge produced.