From Science to Policy and Back Again: Reflections on the Impacts of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment — ASN Events
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From Science to Policy and Back Again: Reflections on the Impacts of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment (10347)

David Wratt 1 , Adrian Macey 2 , Helen Plume 3
  1. NIWA, Newmarket, AUCK, New Zealand
  2. Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
  3. Ministry for the Environment, Wellington, New Zealand

This paper evaluates the uptake and impacts of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment by focusing on three particular areas: International climate change negotiations, development of national greenhouse mitigation policy, and adaptation policy and action at international, regional, national and local levels. Significant uptake is documented in all three of these areas, but some barriers and complications have also arisen. The paper argues that the IPCC and its science form only one of the many strands that must be woven together for successful policy development and implementation.

The authors demonstrate that the IPCC has been flexible and responsive by improving the structure and scope of its assessment reports, and also by implementing changes to address the recommendations of the review by the Inter Academy Council. They discuss how lessons from the past could be used to improve uptake of material from the Fifth Assessment. Finally, they finally list some changes which could be made to the structure and scope of the upcoming sixth assessment cycle to further improve the relevance and uptake of the IPCC’s reports.

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