D-bate 'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.... and beyond?'

After the crises of 2009 and early 2010, the role of the IPCC is being challenged. What is its role at the interface of climate change science and climate policy? Are the crises emblematic of the strenuous relationship between science and policy, or were there simply mistakes? And what are the challenges of the science-policy interface at the global level?

The Research cluster D-bate on Science, Technology and Environmental Governance is proud to present its first debate: On Wednesday 8 September Prof. Frans Berkhout (IVM) and Prof. Arthur Petersen (PBL) will discuss about the present and future of IPCC in the global climate policy (moderated by Laurens Bouwer).

Arthur Petersen asks: Is the IPCC still up to its tasks in the 21st century? Does the panel need an overhaul of its tasks and procedures? On the basis of a review process the PBL has undertaken, Arthur Petersen argues that improvements in the IPCC's review process and communication of uncertainty are indeed in order.

Frans Berkhout claims that IPCC as part of the whole UNFCCC regime functions very well: it has a clear position in the regime to form the basic knowledge claims underpinning political commitments to responses to climate change, and there is no real alternative. The problem according to Berkhout lies outside the IPCC: in the changing political commitments to multilateral climate action; in the opening of a public debate about procedures in science; and in the emergence of new voices in knowledge production enabled through Web 2.0.

More information:

You can send an e-mail to Susan van 't Klooster or Eleftheria Vasileiadou.

About the speakers:

Professor Arthur Petersen (1970) is Director of the Methodology and Modelling Programme at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), Visiting Professor in the Centre for the Analysis of Time Series and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Research Affiliate in the Political Economy & Technology Policy Program of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT).

Currently, Arthur's research focuses on methodological questions pertaining to a wide range of models and on political science questions to dealing with uncertainty in policymaking. He has been active within the context of Working Group I of the IPCC, both as an expert and as a member of the Dutch government delegations to IPCC meetings - to reflect on the assessment of uncertainties in climate models.

Professor Frans Berkhout is Professor of Innovation and Sustainability, and Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM). His recent research has been concerned with technology, policy and sustainability, with special emphasis on the links between technological innovation and environmental performance in firms, the measurement of sustainability performance, futures scenario studies, business adaptation to environmental change, and policy frameworks for innovation and the environment. Among other advisory roles, Frans is a lead author in the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report.

Laurens Bouwer is researcher at IVM and member of the D-bate cluster. He studies climate change impacts and adaptation, and is a lead author for the Third and Fifth Assessment Reports and contributor to the Special Report on Extremes of the IPCC.