One world or two? Science-policy interactions in the climate field

This article assesses how science–policy interactions are conceptualized in the social sciences with special reference to climate change and the IPCC. In terms of the dimension of distance (or proximity) between science and policy, we discern two ideal-type cases: a ‘two-worlds’ and a ‘one-world’ perspective. The first understands science and policy as independent spheres separated by a clear gap, while the second perceives science and policy as tightly coupled. These two perspectives, presented here in detail and in various sub-variants in order to show their complexity, appear dominant also in the discussions on how to improve, not only describe, the interaction between science and policy. We argue that this situation of opposing perspectives is not beneficial, nor properly recognized by scholars in the field. In response to this, we present a typology that may serve as a modest and judicious way for thinking about and making more nuanced choices in designing science–policy relations

Silent Struggles : The depoliticization of Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative

This study aims to determine whether Norway‘s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) has come to be portrayed and handled as a depoliticized issue, and intends to highlight how possible depoliticization is a result of processes of co-production. In the thesis, depoliticization is identified in two ways. One sign of depoliticization is that debated issues are viewed as 'technical', in other words, as a complex matter for experts to discuss. The second is that these technical discussions take place in a domain partly concealed from the public. Asking whether NGO-expertise in some cases may contribute to the depoliticizing of issues, this study has come to mainly focus on the Norwegian non-governmental organization (NGO) Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN). Arguably, RFN serves a role as an expert in relation to NICFI. Exploring the possible depoliticization of NICFI, two controversies are analyzed: the controversy over safeguards, and the controversy over financing REDD+. Through examination of these two controversies, the study argues that these discussions are indeed political. However, this study finds strong indicators that NICFI issues have been defined as somewhat 'technical', and that both the Norwegian authorities and RFN act in a way that keeps the debated issues partly concealed from the general public, and thus creating less opposition. This is of particular interest because traditionally bringing in experts has the opposite effect: experts often destabilize phenomena, causing more political commotion. By depoliticizing NICFI, one is stabilizing a specific social order in which NICFI may exist, as well as RFN‘s newfound position in Norwegian policy-making. Bearing this in mind, the thesis discusses possible implications and advantages of situations related to the depoliticization of issues

Retrofitting towards a greener marine shipping future: Reassembling ship fuels and liquefied natural gas in Norway

The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has entered regulatory agendas in shipping. In Norway, a debate has been ongoing for over a decade about whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship fuel enables or impedes the transition to a greener future for shipping. This paper explores the assembling of ship fuel before and after the introduction of a controversial carbon tax on LNG. It reconstructs how changes in the regulatory apparatus prompted the reworking of natural gas into a ship fuel, yet later slowed down the development of LNG in a strategy to promote alternative zero-emission fuels such as hydrogen. Following ship fuel as socio-materiality in motion, we find that fossil fuels are reworked into new modes of application as part of transition policies. Natural gas continues to be enacted as an “enabler of transition” in the context of shipping, given that current government policies work to support the production of hydrogen from natural gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS). New modes of accounting for emissions reassemble existing fossil fuel materiality by means of CCS and fossil-based zero-emission fuels. We examine retrofit as a particular kind of reassembling and as a prism for studying the politics of fuel and the relation between transitions and existing infrastructures

One world or two? Science–policy interactions in the climate field

This article assesses how science–policy interactions are conceptualized in the social sciences with special reference to climate change and the IPCC. In terms of the dimension of distance (or proximity) between science and policy, we discern two ideal-type cases: a ‘two-worlds’ and a ‘one-world’ perspective. The first understands science and policy as independent spheres separated by a clear gap, while the second perceives science and policy as tightly coupled. These two perspectives, presented here in detail and in various sub-variants in order to show their complexity, appear dominant also in the discussions on how to improve, not only describe, the interaction between science and policy. We argue that this situation of opposing perspectives is not beneficial, nor properly recognized by scholars in the field. In response to this, we present a typology that may serve as a modest and judicious way for thinking about and making more nuanced choices in designing science–policy relations