IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v177y2024i9d10.1007_s10584-024-03788-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The history and future of IPCC special reports: A dual role of politicisation and normalisation

Author

Listed:
  • Shinichiro Asayama

    (National Institute for Environmental Studies)

Abstract

The special reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have a unique character in IPCC scientific assessment. Their main purpose is to address specific timely issues of policy relevance. This article explores the nature and role of IPCC special reports along the lines of three questions: (1) the history (‘where they come from’); (2) the function (‘what they are doing’); and (3) the future (‘where they are going’). In earlier assessment cycles, special reports were characterised mostly as a direct channel for quickly responding to the request from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The conduct of special reports has been gradually institutionalised to embed its planning in the overall scoping of the entire assessment cycle. More recently, they have become a vehicle to consolidate cross-cutting scientific perspectives and serve the diverse needs of the international policy community, not only the UNFCCC. This historical evolution is, in a sense, the result of striving for greater policy relevance. Special reports have a dual political function—namely, turning into the site or object of politicised debates on science (politicisation) and serving as ‘de facto governance’ with the effect of normalising politically contested ideas (normalisation). This dual function is two different faces emerging from the process into which the IPCC is brought to deal with political controversy. The duality of the two functions also manifests inherent tensions that lie behind the IPCC’s ‘policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive’ principle. For the future of special reports, the IPCC could reconsider the role of special reports in light of the priority over comprehensive assessment reports, the responsiveness to the UNFCCC request and the selection and scope definition of timely topics. However, there will remain a trade-off between provisional science and lasting political impact caused by the future undertaking of IPCC special reports on any topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Shinichiro Asayama, 2024. "The history and future of IPCC special reports: A dual role of politicisation and normalisation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(9), pages 1-27, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:177:y:2024:i:9:d:10.1007_s10584-024-03788-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-024-03788-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-024-03788-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-024-03788-1?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shinichiro Asayama, 2021. "Threshold, budget and deadline: beyond the discourse of climate scarcity and control," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Kari De Pryck, 2021. "Intergovernmental Expert Consensus in the Making: The Case of the Summary for Policy Makers of the IPCC 2014 Synthesis Report," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 21(1), pages 108-129, Winter.
    3. Jesse L. Reynolds, 2021. "Is solar geoengineering ungovernable? A critical assessment of governance challenges identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(2), March.
    4. David Griggs, 2014. "Climate policy: Streamline IPCC reports," Nature, Nature, vol. 508(7495), pages 171-173, April.
    5. Erlend A. T. Hermansen & Bård Lahn & Göran Sundqvist & Eirik Øye, 2021. "Post-Paris policy relevance: lessons from the IPCC SR15 process," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Shinichiro Asayama & Rob Bellamy & Oliver Geden & Warren Pearce & Mike Hulme, 2019. "Why setting a climate deadline is dangerous," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(8), pages 570-572, August.
    7. Shinichiro Asayama & Kari Pryck & Silke Beck & Béatrice Cointe & Paul N. Edwards & Hélène Guillemot & Karin M. Gustafsson & Friederike Hartz & Hannah Hughes & Bård Lahn & Olivier Leclerc & Rolf Lidsko, 2023. "Three institutional pathways to envision the future of the IPCC," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 13(9), pages 877-880, September.
    8. Max W. Callaghan & Jan C. Minx & Piers M. Forster, 2020. "A topography of climate change research," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 10(2), pages 118-123, February.
    9. Rob Hoppe & Anna Wesselink & Rose Cairns, 2013. "Lost in the problem: the role of boundary organisations in the governance of climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(4), pages 283-300, July.
    10. Hannah Hughes & Alice B. M. Vadrot, 2019. "Weighting the World: IPBES and the Struggle over Biocultural Diversity," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 19(2), pages 14-37, May.
    11. Haroon Kheshgi & Heleen Coninck & John Kessels, 2012. "Carbon dioxide capture and storage: Seven years after the IPCC special report," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 563-567, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Friederike Hartz, 2024. "“We are not droids”– IPCC participants’ senses of responsibility and affective experiences across the production, assessment, communication and enactment of climate science," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(6), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Patrick Bayer & Lorenzo Crippa & Hannah Hughes & Erlend Hermansen, 2024. "Government participation in virtual negotiations: evidence from IPCC approval sessions," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(8), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Shinichiro Asayama, 2021. "Threshold, budget and deadline: beyond the discourse of climate scarcity and control," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Nikki Funke & Dave Huitema & Arthur Petersen, 2024. "Boundary work to what end? Analysing the acid mine drainage case in Gauteng, South Africa," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 393-405.
    5. Lea Berrang‐Ford & Friederike Döbbe & Ruth Garside & Neal Haddaway & William F. Lamb & Jan C. Minx & Wolfgang Viechtbauer & Vivian Welch & Howard White, 2020. "Editorial: Evidence synthesis for accelerated learning on climate solutions," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    6. Neal R. Haddaway & Max W. Callaghan & Alexandra M. Collins & William F. Lamb & Jan C. Minx & James Thomas & Denny John, 2020. "On the use of computer‐assistance to facilitate systematic mapping," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    7. Alejandro Esguerra & Sandra van der Hel, 2021. "Participatory Designs and Epistemic Authority in Knowledge Platforms for Sustainability," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 21(1), pages 130-151, Winter.
    8. Kenji Otsuka, 2022. "Co‐optation in co‐production: Maintaining credibility and legitimacy in transboundary environmental governance in East Asia," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 39(6), pages 771-797, November.
    9. Gabriel Chan & Carlo Carraro & Ottmar Edenhofer & Charles Kolstad & Robert Stavins, 2016. "Reforming The Ipcc’S Assessment Of Climate Change Economics," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(01), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Mariana Madruga de Brito & Danny Otto & Christian Kuhlicke, 2021. "Tracking Topics and Frames Regarding Sustainability Transformations during the Onset of the COVID-19 Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-19, October.
    11. Abel, Dennis & Lieth, Jonas & Jünger, Stefan, 2024. "Mapping the spatial turn in social science energy research. A computational literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    12. Tiffany H. Morrison & W. Neil Adger & Katrina Brown & Maria Carmen Lemos & Dave Huitema & Terry P. Hughes, 2017. "Mitigation and adaptation in polycentric systems: sources of power in the pursuit of collective goals," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(5), September.
    13. Kerstin K. Zander & Stephen T. Garnett & Harald Sterly & Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson & Barbora Šedová & Hermann Lotze-Campen & Carmen Richerzhagen & Hunter S. Baggen, 2022. "Topic modelling exposes disciplinary divergence in research on the nexus between human mobility and the environment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    14. Amelia Sharman & Richard Perkins, 2017. "Post-decisional logics of inaction: The influence of knowledge controversy in climate policy decision-making," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(10), pages 2281-2299, October.
    15. Yaqub, Z.T. & Oboirien, B.O. & Leion, H., 2024. "Process optimization of chemical looping combustion of solid waste/biomass using machine learning algorithm," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    16. Shinichiro Asayama & Mike Hulme & Nils Markusson, 2021. "Balancing a budget or running a deficit? The offset regime of carbon removal and solar geoengineering under a carbon budget," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 1-21, July.
    17. Jesse L. Reynolds, 2021. "Is solar geoengineering ungovernable? A critical assessment of governance challenges identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(2), March.
    18. Niko Jaakkola, 2012. "Monopolistic sequestration of European carbon emissions," OxCarre Working Papers 098, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    19. Hansu Hwang & SeJin An & Eunchang Lee & Suhyeon Han & Cheon-hwan Lee, 2021. "Cross-Societal Analysis of Climate Change Awareness and Its Relation to SDG 13: A Knowledge Synthesis from Text Mining," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-21, May.
    20. Benedikt Rilling & Jale Tosun, 2021. "Policy and political consequences of mandatory climate impact assessments: an explorative study of German cities and municipalities [Proceeding in parallel or drifting apart? A systematic review of," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 40(1), pages 99-115.

    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:spr:climat:v:177:y:2024:i:9:d:10.1007_s10584-024-03788-1. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.springer.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.