Science
Science is knowledge or a system of knowledge about the physical world and its phenomena. Many environmental threats would be unknown without scientific research or discovered too late for the development of appropriate policies.
Environmental policy rests on a foundation of scientific research. However, the process of scientific research is not always geared to the needs of policymaking. Science seeks to prove or disprove hypotheses as a strategy for reaching enduring answers. Policy is limited in time and location: decisions must be made at a given time for a specific jurisdiction. Policymakers seek the best possible answers to issues because there is a constituency that requires an answer. Effective environmental policy requires facts derived from science as well as principles and goals derived from policy analysis. However, simply providing more scientific information does not create better policy. Scientists and policymakers often speak two different languages. An effective science-policy interface is often needed to negotiate and mediate between science and policy so that the evidence scientists provide is understandable to policymakers and other stakeholders.
Events and Articles
Showing 31 - 40 of 131 results
46th Session of the IPCC (IPCC-46)
As Hurricane Irma pounded the Caribbean, and weather and other natural disasters filled the news, delegates gathered in Montreal to approve the draft outlines of the three Working Group reports, which, together with the SYR, make up the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report
Bonn Climate Change Conference - May 2017
The “elephant in the room” of continued US participation in the Paris Agreement soon became a non-issue as the Trump administration delayed its decision, allowing negotiators to settle back into a “business as usual” mode of work and incrementally advance efforts to operationalize the Paris Agreement through technical discussions under the three subsidiary bodies.
45th Session of the IPCC (IPCC-45)
IPCC-45 focused on the outlines for the special reports on: climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and GHG fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems (SRCCL); and oceans and the cryosphere in a changing climate (SROCC).
44th Session of the IPCC (IPCC-44)
By the end of the meeting, the outlines for two important IPCC reports—one on limiting global warming to 1.5ºC and the other on a refinement to the 2006 National GHG Inventory Guidelines—were approved.
Bonn Climate Change Conference - May 2016
Taking place in the shadow of the historic COP 21, the Bonn gathering was a low-profile meeting with an ambitious agenda aimed at rapidly taking up the technical work needed to operationalize the Paris Agreement.
43rd Session of the IPCC (IPCC-43)
The IPCC agreed to undertake three special reports on: the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above preindustrial levels and related global GHG emission pathways; climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and GHG fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems; and on climate change and oceans and the cryosphere.