Scientists as policy entrepreneurs: the IPCC and climate governance

Environmental governance is a policy area where science has always been particularly influential. International cooperation in the field of climate change, for example, has stemmed from scientific cooperation, formalized through the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Recent controversies surrounding the IPCC, however, have questioned the relationship between science and politics in the field of climate governance and policies. International cooperation in the field of climate change was born from a scientific consensus on the reality and on the origin of global warming. Since then, the works of the IPCC have always been crucial in the process of climate negotiations and the design of climate policies. Given its high authority and its importance in the policy process, the IPCC has become a major political actor in the field of climate change. Though supposedly policy-neutral, its reports are policy-oriented and have been crucial in stemming international action on climate change. This paper puts forward the hypothesis that the recent attacks and press campaigns targeted the IPCC more as a political actor than as a scientific body. It contends that climate policies, rather than climate science, were the real targets of these controversies. In order to document this hypothesis, the paper examines the communication of the IPCC on the long run, and aims to show it has progressively become a political actor. The paper proceeds by suggesting some possible ways the IPCC could reposition itself in the debate and respond adequately to the attacks.