IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v11y2021i9d10.1038_s41558-021-01125-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate services promise better decisions but mainly focus on better data

Author

Listed:
  • Kieran Findlater

    (University of British Columbia
    University of British Columbia)

  • Sophie Webber

    (The University of Sydney)

  • Milind Kandlikar

    (University of British Columbia
    University of British Columbia)

  • Simon Donner

    (University of British Columbia)

Abstract

Climate services are intended to improve climate-sensitive decisions by making climate information ‘useful, useable and used’. Here, we analyse 27 expert interviews to evaluate whether this user-driven model of climate science has been successfully implemented in the public sector. We show that, although climate services promise better decision-making, they mainly focus on delivering better data. The norms and institutions of climate science produce three key tensions in operationalizing climate services: a focus on products rather than processes, services based on broad assumptions about demand rather than being demand-driven, and the narrow economic valuation of products rather than evaluation of improvements in decision-making. These tensions help explain why climate services often generate nominal changes in climate science where transformations are promised. Transformational change requires that climate services account for diverse social structures, behaviours and contexts. Integrating social science is no panacea for demand-driven climate services, but it is certainly a prerequisite.

Suggested Citation

  • Kieran Findlater & Sophie Webber & Milind Kandlikar & Simon Donner, 2021. "Climate services promise better decisions but mainly focus on better data," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(9), pages 731-737, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:9:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01125-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01125-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01125-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-021-01125-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Surminski, Swenja & Barnes, Jonathan & Vincent, Katharine, 2022. "Can insurance catalyse government planning on climate? Emergent evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    2. Owuor John Ochieng & Michael Omondi Owiso & Dominic Kniventon & Barack Omondi Calvince, 2023. "An Analysis of the Influence of Fisher-Folks’ Perceptions on Uptake of Impact-Based Forecasting Weather Information for Adaptation to Nocturnal Storms," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(10), pages 1453-1472, October.
    3. Xueke Li & Amanda H. Lynch, 2023. "New insights into projected Arctic sea road: operational risks, economic values, and policy implications," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(4), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Surminski, Swenja & Barnes, Jonathan & Vincent, Katharine, 2022. "Can insurance catalyse government planning on climate? Emergent evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113564, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Steinke, Jonathan & Ortiz-Crespo, Berta & van Etten, Jacob & Müller, Anna, 2022. "Participatory design of digital innovation in agricultural research-for-development: insights from practice," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    6. Robert Wilby & Xianfu Lu, 2022. "Tailoring climate information and services for adaptation actors with diverse capabilities," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 1-13, October.
    7. Snow, Stephen & Fielke, Simon & Fleming, Aysha & Jakku, Emma & Malakar, Yuwan & Turner, Charles & Hunter, Tammy & Tijs, Sigrid & Bonnett, Graham, 2024. "Climate services for agriculture: Steering towards inclusive innovation in Australian climate services design and delivery," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:9:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01125-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.