What Kind of Expertise Does Climate Policy Need?

• In Event: How Has Climate Change Reshaped Scientific Expertise and the Expert? - I

Abstract

In my talk I want to examine the role of expertise in the development of climate policies. I do this by drawing conceptual distinctions between experts, scientists, and specialists (Grundmann 2018). Often these terms are used synonymously which leads to confused arguments and debates. I adopt a relational definition of expertise which emphasizes the advice an expert provides for a client (Grundmann 2016). This advice includes making assessments of problems where value conflicts and epistemic uncertainties play an important role. Neither scientists nor specialists are routinely involved in making such assessments. Based on this conceptual framing I will ask what kind of expertise the IPCC, and climate science more generally has provided, and what kind of expertise would be required for effective climate policies. Examples will include scientific consensus and dissensus and the question what effect this has had on the policy process (Cook et al. 2013; Pearce et al. 2017). I will also address the question of how STS approaches to scientific expertise have been affected by the climate change problem.

Author

• Reiner Grundmann, University of Nottingham