Typologies of actionable climate information and its use

Abstract

Developing actionable climate information and integrating it into decision-making are two crucial elements for promoting effective societal responses to climate change. However, what constitutes actionable climate information, and how it is used, varies based on the actors, systems, and scales that are relevant to specific decisions. Yet, the terms ‘actionable climate information’ or ‘use of climate information’ are used abstractly. There is a lack of holistic understanding of the various types of information that can be deemed as usable by different users, and the different ways in which they may be used in decision-making. Typologies or generalizable categorizations can help both knowledge producers and users to better envision the entire landscape of climate information and its uses and can help to reduce the time and cost of actionable knowledge production. Through systematic coding and analysis of ∼ 4 years of co-production engagements between climate scientists and resource managers, this paper presents empirically derived typologies of actionable climate information and its use, and explores whether certain uses are better informed by specific types of climate information. These typologies provide a valuable starting point for climate information producers, users, and boundary spanners working on climate-informed resource management, to reduce some of the time-intensive elements of the process.