Collection 

IPCC: dinosaur or dynamo for climate action?

Submission status
Open

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has played a crucial and unprecedented role, both scientifically and politically, in putting climate change on the agenda. It has helped catalyse the emergence of strong climate science communities as well as international climate politics. Still, it is unclear specifically how IPCC knowledge is relevant for climate actions and solutions, and how the IPCC can best fulfil its mandate of being policy relevant post-Paris. This special collection aims to examine, assess, and discuss the relevance of IPCC knowledge for npj Climate Action, and to create a lively forum for discussion and reflection on the IPCC and its future. We hope to attract contributions from a broad variety of disciplines including both social and natural scientists, in various formats (original research, essays, perspectives and case studies), from a broad array of contributors, including both researchers and practitioners, and others that apply and relate to the work of the IPCC. Original research as well as opinionated pieces are welcome. We aim to spur dialogue between researchers studying the IPCC, IPCC authors and climate action practitioners.

We seek contributions (original research, reviews, perspective articles and case studies) to a special collection that relate to the aims presented above, and for instance deal with the following questions:

  • To what extent and how does the procedural set-up, design and execution of the IPCC process enable the IPCC to be relevant for climate action post-Paris?
  • How has the role of varying scientific disciplines within the IPCC changed over time, how has the IPCC in turn contributed to shape disciplinary practices, and how does this affect the ability of the IPCC to be relevant for climate action?
  • How does IPCC knowledge inform and influence climate governance and climate action, at the international, regional, national and local level, and how has this changed over time?
  • Which factors shape and determine whether and how IPCC reports and summary for policy makers are relevant for climate action? What is the relative importance of various scientific disciplines, member states, entrepreneurship, traditions, cultures and other factors, and how does the differing disciplines affect the impact of IPCC knowledge on climate action?
  • Should and could the IPCC be reformed to become more relevant for climate action post-Paris? Can other science-policy procedures and boundary organizations be more conducive to facilitate climate action at this stage in climate transition processes?

Do not hesitate to contact the special issue editors if you consider submitting a contribution.

Contacts

Prof. Elin Lerum Boasson
University of Oslo; Senior Researcher CICERO Center for International Climate Research
Email: e.l.boasson@stv.uio.no

Dr. Erlend A. T. Hermansen
Senior Researcher CICERO Center for International Climate Research
Email: erlend.hermansen@cicero.oslo.no

Dr. Glen Peters
Research Director CICERO Center for International Climate Research
Email: glen.peters@cicero.oslo.no

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New York, USA - 18 March 2021: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ipcc company logo icon on website, Illustrative Editorial.

Editors

  • Elin Lerum Boasson

    Political Science Department, University of Oslo, Norway; Senior Researcher, CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Norway

  • Erlend A. T. Hermansen

    Senior Researcher, CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Norway

  • Glen Peters

    Research Director, CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Norway

Articles