Utilization of Science-based Information on Climate Change in Decision Making and the Public Policy Process, Phase I
Funder: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Many unresolved issues linger with regard to the human dimensions of global climate change. Of particular interest is the National Research Council's recognition that there is a need to improve methods for decision making about global climate change, in part by improving our understanding of the role of institutions and their climate change policies at all levels.
This project seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how decision makers—climate change scientists, policy makers, and individual citizens—utilize science-based information on climate change. This focus is consistent with NOAA's mission goals of 1) understanding climate variability and change and enhancing the ability of society to plan and respond to these factors and 2) serving society's needs for weather and water information and its interest in seeing this information play an important role in decision making. To serve these needs effectively, accurate data are needed on the way science-based information is defined, framed, packaged, transmitted, received, and used by these groups along with the many other factors that influence decision making in this complex area. This research will focus on these issues as well as an additional set of important questions—how climate change science is actually used by decision makers.
To more sharply focus the research, we will examine two substantive areas of decision making that are subject to climate change influences: public health and economic development. The strategy and methodologies that will be used are derived from an array of well-tested and established social science methods including large-scale surveys, elite/stakeholder interviews, as well as case studies and policy content analysis.
We are using a two-pronged strategy. One set of research activities will center around the development and implementation of a series of surveys: 1) a survey of climate change scientists; 2) a survey aimed at a representative sample of decision and policy-making stakeholders, such as national, state, and local decision makers who have or may have to address climate change issues that could be informed by science-based information; and 3) a survey of a representative, national sample of adult, U.S. citizens, with the objective of specifying knowledge levels on climate change among the general public, learning how the public understands the information it possesses, and determining the public's assessment of climate change risks for public health and economic development. The second, but related, set of research activities will be the development and implementation of a set of case studies that will allow a more detailed examination of how information is transmitted, interpreted, and used in decision and policy making.
Expected outcomes of the research include 1) specification of knowledge levels on climate change, 2) a deeper understanding of how scientists view the information needs of the public and decision makers and how such perceptions influence scientists' communication with these groups, 3) conceptual models of effective information transmission on climate variability, and 4) recommendations for improving efforts to inform and educate the public on climate change and its implications for human response and adaptation.
The research team is led by principal investigator and ISTPP director, Dr. Arnold Vedlitz and two co-principal investigators, Dr. Eric Lindquist (ISTPP associate research scientist/political science), and Dr. Letitia T. Alston (ISTPP associate director/sociology). Also on the project are Drs. B. Dan Wood, professor, Department of Political Science; Dr. Gerald R. North, Distinguished Professor and holder of the Harold J. Haynes Endowed Chair in Geosciences, Department of Atmospheric Sciences; and Sam Zahran, ISTPP post-doctoral research scientist. Other research team members from the Institute include Meg Patterson Rogers, Nell Frazer Lindquist, Brenda Chaloupka, and Doris Newton.
