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10 - Climate policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

David Archer
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Stefan Rahmstorf
Affiliation:
Universität Potsdam, Germany
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Summary

The mandate of the IPCC is to be neutral with respect to policy, so its assessment reports do not recommend any policies. This is different from scientific advisory bodies to governments, which are often asked to provide specific policy recommendations. Although this is sometimes misreported in the media, the IPCC does not recommend limiting global warming to a specific target (such as 2 °C) or stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at a certain level (such as 450 ppm). Likewise the IPCC does not recommend any mitigation options, such as renewable energy or nuclear power – the report merely lays out a range of available options and tries to evaluate how much they could reduce emissions and at what cost. The IPCC reports provide the scientific background information needed by policy makers and society at large to make well-informed decisions as to which policy they would like to follow. The IPCC mantra is to provide scientific information that is policy relevant, but not policy prescriptive.

But climate scientists are also citizens who care about the world, about their own future and that of their children and grandchildren, or about the fate of people living in other parts of the world affected by climate change. Many of us therefore follow the climate policy debate very closely, simply because climate change and its effects on human society are something we think about almost every day.

Type
Chapter
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The Climate Crisis
An Introductory Guide to Climate Change
, pp. 221 - 230
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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  • Climate policy
  • David Archer, University of Chicago, Stefan Rahmstorf, Universität Potsdam, Germany
  • Book: The Climate Crisis
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817144.012
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  • Climate policy
  • David Archer, University of Chicago, Stefan Rahmstorf, Universität Potsdam, Germany
  • Book: The Climate Crisis
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817144.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Climate policy
  • David Archer, University of Chicago, Stefan Rahmstorf, Universität Potsdam, Germany
  • Book: The Climate Crisis
  • Online publication: 05 March 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817144.012
Available formats
×