Optimal Climate Change: Economics and Climate Science Policy Histories (from Heuristic to Normative)

Randalls, Samuel

doi:10.1086/661273

Cited by 31 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Trust might be also attributed to opportunism of policymakers in placing responsibility for action onto the scientists (Grundmann 2006) or on misinterpretation by policymakers of the meaning and implications of the 2°C target. In this regard, trust can be considered as intertwined with a pragmatic calculation by policymakers in balancing what looked reasonable and politically/economically feasible, but also responding to societal concerns and requests of environmental movements (Randalls 2010(Randalls , 2011. The target offered a unifying element for policy engagement to lock-in multiple actors into a long-term commitment (Boykoff et al 2010).…”

Section: Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing by targets: reductio ad unum and evolution of the two-degree climate target

Morseletto

Biermann

Pattberg

2016

Int Environ Agreements

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Targets are widely employed in environmental governance. In this paper, we investigate the construction of the 2°C climate target, one of the best known targets in global environmental governance. Our paper examines this target through a historical reconstruction that identifies four different phases: framing, consolidation and diffusion, adoption, and disembeddedness. Our analysis shows that, initially, the target was science-driven and predominantly EU-based; it then became progressively accepted at the international level, despite a lack of broader debate among governments on the policy implications and required measures for implementation. Once the 2°C target was endorsed at the level of the United Nations, the nature of the target changed from being policy-prescriptive to being largely symbolic. In this phase, the target became a disembedded object in global governance not linked to a shared agenda nor to coordinated and mutually binding mitigation efforts. The 2015 Paris Agreement marks the last stage in this development and may have further solidified the target as a disembedded object. In the final part of the paper, we suggest ways to overcome the current situation and to develop the 2°C target into a fully fledged global environmental governance target.

show abstract

Section: Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing by targets: reductio ad unum and evolution of the two-degree climate target

Morseletto

Biermann

Pattberg

2016

Int Environ Agreements

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, a carbon budget was only seen as an ‘approximation’, because cumulative emissions for a given warming limit was expected to vary depending on their distribution over time (Krause et al, 1989: 37–42). The timing of emissions, in turn, was a question of economics – a matter of optimizing resource use – and therefore required assumptions drawn from scenario building and economic modelling (Randalls, 2011).…”

Section: The Ipcc Process As Modifying-workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This includes how climate modelling and physical climate science has been instrumental in constituting ‘global climate’ and ‘future climate’ as knowable and governable entities (Edwards, 2010; Lahsen, 2007; Shackley, 2001). It also includes, albeit to a lesser extent, the role of economics in articulating the central scientific and political problem of achieving ‘climate stabilization’ at optimal levels – that is, determining the exact concentration of greenhouse gases that ensures an economically optimal balance between the changes in the climate system following from greenhouse gas emissions, and the costly changes in social systems required to limit those emissions (Boykoff et al, 2009; Lohmann, 2009; Randalls, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing climate change: The carbon budget and the modifying-work of the IPCC

Lahn

2020

Soc Stud Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last 10 years, the concept of a global ‘carbon budget’ of allowable CO2 emissions has become ubiquitous in climate science and policy. Since it was brought to prominence by the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC, the carbon budget has changed how climate change is enacted as an issue of public concern, from determining the optimal rate of future emissions to establishing a fixed limit for how much emissions should be allowed before they must be stopped altogether. Exploring the emergence of the carbon budget concept, this article shows how the assessment process of the IPCC has offered scientific experts the means to modify how the climate issue is problematized, and discusses the implications of this ‘modifying-work’ for the politics of climate change. It finds that the ‘modified climate issue’ must be seen as an outcome of the ordinary work within established scientific and political institutions, and the agency these institutions afford scientists to enact the issue differently. On this basis, it argues that the case of the carbon budget holds important insights not only for the relationship between climate science and policy, but also for the pragmatist literature on ‘issue formation’ in STS.

show abstract

“…Formal risk management is now normalized in most organizations and has already shaped much climate change policy . Although awareness of risk can encourage decisive emissions reduction policies and action, risk management tools encourage the decomposition and ranking of risks, which can reduce the perceived size, extent and interconnectedness of issues, and responses needed, bias conclusions against low probability high consequence threats, exclude nonnumerical factors from consideration and depoliticize embedded judgments .…”

Section: Network Organizational and Institutional Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to effective climate change mitigation: the case of senior government and business decision makers

Rickards

Wiseman

Kashima

2014

WIREs Climate Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the case for rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is compelling, actions being taken by most senior decision makers (SDMs) in government and business compound the problem. Given the systemic reach of much senior decision making, including decisions that constrain their own actions, there is an urgent need to open up the SDM black box. Focused on Western governments and multinational corporations, this article examines a cross‐disciplinary range of literature to ask: What are the key factors affecting the preparedness of SDMs—particularly those who accept the climate science—to take the decisive actions needed to drive rapid and significant emission reductions? The review brings together multiple perspectives on the many compounding factors operating across three interconnected scales: micro (individual and interpersonal factors including disciplinary background, worldview, gender, and risk perceptions); meso (network, organizational and institutional factors including management paradigms, organizational culture, and institutional complexity); and macro (environmental, social, cultural, political, and economic factors including climatic extremes, vested interests, and public opinion). It concludes that SDMs are strongly focused on their ‘local’ professional context and near‐term pressures, including reputation among peers, relationships with competitors, and real‐time financial status. As a group they exist within a largely closed circuit and perceive the world from a particular narrow perspective. Combined with the complexity and embedded character of existing systems, this occludes more systemic or reflexive thinking or action. This deep propensity for inaction suggests that a coordinated multi‐frontal approach is essential for a new more effective mitigation approach. WIREs Clim Change 2014, 5:753–773. doi: 10.1002/wcc.305 This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Behavior Change and Responses

show abstract

Optimal Climate Change: Economics and Climate Science Policy Histories (from Heuristic to Normative)

Cited by 31 publications

References 46 publications

Governing by targets: reductio ad unum and evolution of the two-degree climate target

Governing by targets: reductio ad unum and evolution of the two-degree climate target

Changing climate change: The carbon budget and the modifying-work of the IPCC

Barriers to effective climate change mitigation: the case of senior government and business decision makers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About