Climatising social sciences
Professor Dr Peter Driessen is a prominent climate change researcher and chair of the environmental governance group at Utrecht University in the Netherlands; he is also the scientific director of the Dutch national ‘Knowledge for Climate’ research programme on climate adaptation. Speaking at the League of European Research Universities (LERU) autumn reception entitled ‘ERA at the Horizon of 2020?,’ and attended by Horizon 2020 Projects, the academic outlined the importance of the social sciences in climate change research.
“The climate change research landscape is expanding,” Driessen began. “There is a lot of research completed by not only European countries, but also around the globe. The past few years have seen a striking growth in the funding and publication of climate change research, a trend likely to continue. Many countries have specific and successful climate change research programmes, but co-ordination between these programmes is sometimes limited.”
The academic observed the EU’s recognition of the importance of climate change research in FP7 and subsequently Horizon 2020. The academic outlined the development of JPI (Joint Programming Initiative) Climate, an alliance of 13 EU member states.
“JPI Climate aims to contribute to co-ordinated knowledge development by improving the scientific expertise on climate change and connecting that knowledge through decision making on climate adaptation and mitigation,” Driessen said.
Social sciences impact
Speaking to an audience of academics and EU policy makers, the professor drew attention to the “important shifts” in climate change research that had taken place, outlining how social sciences was gaining an increasingly prominent role.
“First of all, there is a growing attention to climate adaptation research next to mitigation research. Second, we see a shift from disciplinary to interdisciplinary approaches. Third, there is a growing attention for science policy integration and this part of climate change research is influenced by knowledge-means of public and private actors. Taking all this into consideration, attention is increasingly shifting towards the need for societal change as a response to climate change and this automatically gives social sciences a more prominent role.”
“On the national level, several research programmes have been launched that focus on interdisciplinary research and more on social sciences and the closer link between knowledge supply and knowledge needs from public and private actors. Examples include the ‘Knowledge for Climate’ programme in the Netherlands and the ‘Austrian Climate Research Programme’.
“There is the need to further strengthen the position of social science and humanities climate change research. The change in societal structures and human behaviour will be crucial in overcoming the challenges posed by climate change,” Driessen continued.
Responses
The academic noted the importance adapting to climate change through several means, notably changes in structural architecture, increasing reliance on renewable energies, and changes to society’s ways of living.
“Effective responses to climate change involve complex processes of societal transformations. The concept of societal transformation refers to alterations of society’s systemic characteristics and can be classed as social, cultural, technical, political and legal changes. The contribution of social sciences is crucial to understanding the process of societal change and there are numerous examples of transformations, e.g. the need to transform energy systems away from the dependence of fossil fuels; a need to broaden the range of flood risk management strategies, from flood defence to flood prevention and flood recovery; and the need to complement health-based e-policy with other regions and developed planning measures.”
Social sciences seven
Social science research on climate change now focuses on seven core areas according to Driessen; he outlined the focus for the research areas and the breadth of impact of climate change.
“The first topic focuses on societal causes of climate change and societal consequences for actors, sectors, regions. Climate change can have important impact on food production, on resource availability, on human health, and on the functioning of infrastructures and networks.
“The second topic places an emphasis on the transformation to the green economy. Similar to climate models based on the natural sciences, there is a need to develop credible scenarios for societal changes in response to climate change.
“Ethical, injustice and social justice issues are also very important social science topics. Within this topic, attention can be played to social inequalities with respect to the impact of climate change and to distributional effects of solution strategies. Attention could also be placed on issues of procedural justice to acquire a better understanding of how different forms of participation of state decision making contribute to effective response strategies.
“The cultural dimension of climate change is, in my view, completely underexplored so far. How climate risks and impacts are perceived by different segments of society and across regions and cultures can differ significantly. This determines to a large extent if, and in what manner, actions are taken. This topic focuses on social values, norms, cultural identities and the effect on individual behaviour.
“The governance of climate mitigation and adaptation is an excellent research theme. What are effective and legitimate modes of governance? What are the division of responsibilities between public and private actors? In our view, special emphasis should also be paid to long-term government strategies.
“Closely connected to the governance theme is the element of financial and economic tools for mitigation and adaptation. It’s about financial mechanisms, potential private contributions, public private investments and cost effective solutions.
“The last item of relevance is the science policy measures. We have to find effective and appropriate ways to encourage the interaction between scientists and policy makers – often these relations are very problematic. According to several scholars, the development of so-called ‘science policy interfaces’ could lead to better decision making or, at least, better informed decision makers. More emphasis should be put on processes of knowledge initialisation and knowledge utilisation.
Comprehensive agenda
Driessen concluded by calling for the need of a “comprehensive climate research agenda” to be developed.
“This agenda should focus on fundamental and apparent research and should put a focus on theoretical advancements and policy engagements, and to stipulate disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, and last, but not least, should be able to facilitate international co-operation between research groups.”
Professor Dr Peter Driessen
