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The value of values in climate science

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 4–6 (2022)Cite this article

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To date, values are not widely acknowledged or discussed within physical climate science. Yet, effective management of values in physical climate science is required for the benefit of both science and society.

The recently published Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC acknowledges that values play a role in the construction of climate change information. AR6 recognizes that science has its own values, including openness, objectivity and evidence-based thinking. However, it also recognizes that social values — fundamental views on what is good, right and important (see section 1.2.3.2 in ref. 1) — guide a number of decisions in the “construction, assessment and communication of information (high confidence)” (see section ‘Executive Summary’ in ref. 1). This marks a departure from the traditional ‘value-free ideal’ of science, according to which social values should have a limited role in scientific research, while values that are epistemic (for example, precision and accuracy) are seen as legitimately influencing research.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. Parker and T. Mauritsen for useful comments. We also acknowledge the support of the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS), grant no. 2018-01797.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Philosophy, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Karoliina Pulkkinen & Per Wikman-Svahn

  2. Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Karoliina Pulkkinen

  3. Department of Meteorology and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sabine Undorf, Frida Bender, Clare Flynn & Aiden Jönsson

  4. Research Department for Climate Resilience – Climate Impacts and Adaptation, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany

    Sabine Undorf

  5. Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

    Francisco Doblas-Reyes

  6. Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, Spain

    Francisco Doblas-Reyes

  7. School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Gabriele C. Hegerl

  8. Department of Politics & International Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Gah-Kai Leung

  9. Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, Sweden

    Joe Roussos

  10. Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Theodore G. Shepherd

  11. Data Science Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Erica Thompson

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  1. Karoliina Pulkkinen
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Contributions

The Comment originated from a workshop organized by S.U., K.P., F.B. and P.W.-S., in which all co-authors took part. K.P. wrote the majority of the manuscript and led and coordinated the discussion, assisted by S.U., with contributions from F.B., P.W.-S. and all co-authors. S.U. drafted Boxes 1–3.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karoliina Pulkkinen.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Pulkkinen, K., Undorf, S., Bender, F. et al. The value of values in climate science. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 4–6 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01238-9

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