Rel E Vant but Not Pre Scrip Tive? Sci Ence Pol Icy Mod Els within the Ipcc

Founded by the World Me te o ro log i cal Or ga ni za tion (WMO) and the United Na tions En vi ron ment Programme (UNEP) in 1988, the In ter gov ern men tal Panel on Cli mate Change (IPCC) is en gaged in a unique sci en tific as sess ment pro cess. Not only is the IPCC ex plic itly tied to the United Na tions Frame work Con ven tion on Cli mate Change (UNFCCC) as its pol icy au di ence, but it also in cor po rates po lit i cal del e ga tions from the UNFCCC into its in ter nal as sess ment struc ture. Over the course of pro duc ing three multi-year as sess ment re ports be tween 1988 and 2002, the IPCC has de vel oped sev eral in no va tive ap proaches to the sci ence-pol icy in ter face, in clud ing the pro duc tion of a sum mary for policymakers (SPM) and the use of pol icy rel e vant sci en tific ques tions (PRSQ) to struc ture the fi nal Syn the sis Re port in the 2001 as sess ment. These are in tended to fa cil i tate in ter ac tion be tween sci ence and pol icy com mu ni ties and thus con trib ute to sit u at ing the IPCC sci en tific as sess ment pro cess within an in ter gov ern men tal frame work. How ever, over the past de cade, the sci encepol icy nexus in ter nal to the IPCC has sparked sig nif i cant con tro versy and crit i cism with re gard to the cred i bil ity of IPCC in ter pre ta tions and prod ucts. The pur pose of this pa per is to ex am ine these two in no va tions with re spect to the way the in ter ac tion be tween sci ence and pol icy is man aged, in the ex pec ta tion that such an anal y sis might shed light on what may be fruit ful ways to think about the role and sta tus of sci en tific in for ma tion used for pol icy pur poses and how the sci en tific and po lit i cal com mu ni ties can op er ate to gether to pro duce in for ma tion that re mains cred i ble to both com mu ni ties.