Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Climate change is advancing in severity globally and the scientific community’s warnings toward political representatives are proceeding. A lack of political action on scientific warnings gives rise to the idea of a ‘science-policy gap’, which assumes that science needs to become more politically applicable, and that politics need to act faster and better to mitigate climate change. To advance implementation of national and international climate goals, institutions called national climate councils are emerging. These organisations are created to give scientific support that is relevant for the political world. However, working between science and policy have proven to be a practice full of dilemmas and challenges. The organisations are expected to bridge worlds built on different logics that are not appropriate to merge. This thesis explores how the Swedish Climate Policy Council works between the borders of science and politics and investigates challenges and opportunities in this interaction to increase climate policy action. To unearth the scientific experts’ understandings of their work, interviews were conducted and analysed through theories of boundary work. This thesis suggests, based on experiences of practitioners, that governing documents from the political practice to the scientific, and vice versa, need to hold a certain openness to enable ‘double freedom of interpretation’. By not being too detailed, conditions are set for practices to contain agency on how to act. The study also illuminates the ‘issue of demarcation’, which brings to attention that sharp borders from the political practice seem to create an unnecessary distance toward the scientific sphere. This in turn may challenge the possibility for the climate council to develop recommendations that make sense for the Government. Finally, I highlight what I refer to as ‘boundary object effect’, where the space created by the climate council works as a meeting place for different practices to commonly address the science-policy gap. Further research is encouraged to explore how a variety of practices understand the science-policy interface, as this thesis illustrates the perspective of the scientific council members of the Swedish Climate Policy Council.