Scientific expertise in early international negotiations on climate change : Bert Bolin and the IPCC
Granado, Carolina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut d'Història de la Ciència)

Date:	2025
Abstract:	This article examines the contributions of Bert Bolin, the first chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to the collective understanding of the panel's nature, operations and results, as well as his efforts to safeguard the credibility of the IPCC process in the face of criticism. Based on the scholarship on expertise and its relationship with the political process, I argue that Bolin's contribution to that process can be summarized in three points. First, he acted as a mediator between producers of climate change knowledge and its users, in this case governments and corporations. Second, he selected and emphasized some of the information provided by the IPCC and used it to advocate for immediate action to tackle climate change. Third, he played a major role in legitimizing the IPCC as the best possible assessment organization, especially through boundary work. Additionally, it is suggested that Bolin's role in the advisory process was not static but changed within an evolving political and social context. Through this case study, I aim to contribute to the scholarship that examines how environmental problems are defined and brought into the political arena, and the role of experts in this complex process.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2019-106743GB-C22 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2023-150413NB-C21
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	British journal for the history of science, (August 2025) , p. 1-23, ISSN 1474-001X

DOI: 10.1017/S0007087425101052

23 p, 354.2 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut d'Història de la Ciència (IHC)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles