Climate Change and COVID Are Wicked Policy Problems at the Interface of Science and Politics

Policy communication and the resulting influence that information has on policy decision-makers is an especially pertinent topic when it comes to problems of climate change. Notorious for its complexity, uncertainty, and divergence of viewpoints, climate change has earned the title of being the major “wicked” or “super-wicked” problem of our times. A proliferation of expertise, interests, and capacities mark the climate change policymaking landscape and this density of players warrants an advanced framework to understand the ways in which the variety of climate-pertinent knowledge is communicated to policymakers. Moving beyond undifferentiated “two-communities” models of knowledge utilization in policymaking which limit the discussion to the bilateral interactions between knowledge experts or “producers” and information “consumers” of the public sector, this article explores the concept of a policy advisory system, which embodies the different sets of influence that various policy actors can have during policy decision-making and how communication between and among actors is a significant aspect of climate change policymaking. The concept of policy advisory systems is an important new development in the policy studies literature and one that is analytically very applicable to climate policy contexts. Suitably generalizable across representative policy settings, policy advisory systems are comprised of distinct groups of actors who are engaged in the definition of policy problems, the articulation of policy solutions, or the matching of policy problems to solutions. We explore how individual members of these separate sets of actors—namely the epistemic community, which is occupied in discourses about policy problems; the instrument constituencies which define policy instruments; and the advocacy coalitions which compete to have their choice of policy alternatives adopted—interact and communicate with policymakers across climate change policy activities.

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Pacific Journalism Monographs No 3: Kiribati media, science and politics

Pacific Journalism Monographs Te Koakoa Ngā Rangahau ◽

10.24135/pjm.v0i3.4 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Taberannang Korauaba

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Empirical Study ◽

The Public ◽

Impact Of Climate Change ◽

The People ◽

The Pacific ◽

Local Media ◽

Science And Politics ◽

The Media ◽

The Impact

By Taberannang Korauaba Although the Pacific nation of Kiribati has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change, little is known about the attitudes of the local media and the public toward this issue. This is in contrast to empirical study findings which have shown that the public and the media were aware of the threats posed by climate change. This monograph extracted from the author’s thesis argues that the people of Kiribati are not united over climate change. Browse the author's MCS thesis on Kiribati

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The lesson learned from COVID-19 and the climate crisis is not to let experts decide on policies: a response to Robert C. Schmidt

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences ◽

10.1007/s13412-021-00737-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Annette Elisabeth Toeller ◽

Sonja Blum ◽

Michael Boecher ◽

Kathrin Loer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Existing Problems ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Scientific Experts ◽

Science And Politics ◽

Political Choices ◽

Strong Position ◽

Normative Issues ◽

Climate Crisis

AbstractThis is a response to the commentary by Robert C. Schmidt in this journal, in which the author suggests that for specific problems such as climate change or the current pandemic, decisions on policies should be made by scientific experts rather than by politicians. We argue that such ideas, which were brought up in the late 1960s and reconsidered more recently, do not take sufficient account of the nature of science politics, and their interaction. Furthermore, problem structures and resulting challenges for science and politics are not similar, but essentially different between climate change and the pandemic. Therefore, different solutions to the problems are required. There is a need to improve politics’ reliable recourse to scientific evidence in many cases. Yet, giving scientific experts such a strong position in decision-making ignores that most decisions, even if based on the state of scientific evidence (if there is such an uncontroversial state of evidence), ultimately require genuinely political choices about trade-offs of interests and normative issues that neither can nor should be made by scientists. Therefore, putting Schmidt’s proposal into practice would not solve the existing problems but instead create new problems.

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A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change

10.1017/cbo9780511721731 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 82

Author(s):

Bert Bolin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Science And Politics ◽

History Of

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Behavioral Economics and Public Policy 102: Beyond Nudging

The American Economic Review ◽

10.1257/aer.p20151049 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 105 (5) ◽

pp. 396-401 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Saurabh Bhargava ◽

George Loewenstein

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Public Policy ◽

Decision Making ◽

Health Insurance ◽

Behavioral Economics ◽

Policy Instruments ◽

Design And Implementation ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

Human Decision ◽

Policy Problems

Policymakers have recently embraced Behavioral Economics as an alternative approach which recognizes the limits and consequences of human decision-making. Early applications of BE (“nudges”) produced notable successes and helped to set the stage for more aggressive applications aimed at the deeper causes of policy problems. We contend that policies that aspire to simplify products and incentives, rather than choice environments, aggressively protect consumers from behavioral exploitation, and leverage BE to enhance the design and implementation of traditional policy instruments offer solutions commensurate with contemporary challenges. Case studies in health insurance, privacy, and climate change illustrate the application of these ideas.

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“I’m not in the truth business”: the politics of climate change with pre-service teachers

English Teaching Practice & Critique ◽

10.1108/etpc-05-2017-0081 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 72-89 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James S. Damico ◽

Alexandra Panos ◽

Mark Baildon

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Critical Literacy ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Literacy Practices ◽

Academic Disciplines ◽

Content Type ◽

Agonistic Encounter ◽

Science And Politics ◽

Change Beliefs ◽

Online Sources

Purpose This study was designed to be an agonistic encounter between two pre-service teachers from different academic disciplines and with opposing climate change beliefs. The purpose of this study was to create an opportunity for this pair of future educators to voice, acknowledge and engage their differences, rather than avoid or skirt them. Design/methodology/approach Using a paired interview approach, two pre-service teachers discussed online sources about climate change. The analysis focuses on critical literacy practices of textual critique and reader reflexivity, considering how students from different beliefs and perspectives engage in agonism and negotiated practices. Findings While there was evidence of the two students engaged in critical literacy practices of textual critique, most of this engagement with the sources remained more at a surface level with somewhat superficial criteria to evaluate the sources. The two students engaged reflexively during the interview discussion in terms of their academic disciplines and climate change beliefs. This reflexive work produced the most compelling exchanges during the interview discussion and pointed to two rich sites for agonistic engagement: their differing conceptions of reliability and their competing perspectives about the intersection of science and politics. Originality/value Agonism offers a lens that helps ensure we understand that all pursuits toward facts and truth are necessarily contested as we engage with respected adversaries, not enemies we need to vanquish. There is an urgent need for dialogue across difference, especially for people in the increasingly polarized USA with complex topics and challenges such as climate change.

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