Democratic Innovations for Climate Transitions: Independent Climate Advisory Bodies

Over 140 countries have announced Net Zero targets. Independent climate advisory bodies have been established across Europe to help meet these targets by providing rigorous scientific analysis to support policy creation and implementation. Despite their growing role in climate governance, however, the impact of independent climate advisory bodies remains understudied. This paper seeks to address gaps in the research on independent climate advisory bodies. It presents findings from a mapping of European independent climate advisory bodies and case studies, including an empirical study of the UK Climate Change Committee's (CCC) impact on political discourse, policy, and legislation from 2019 to 2025. The study builds on an earlier paper by Averchenkova et al. (2020), which examines the impact of the CCC in the first 10 years of existence (2008 to 2018); it draws on over 1700 parliamentary contributions to explore the effects of Brexit, COVID-19, the cost-of-living crisis, and growing polarisation around climate change. This paper draws on the analytical framework for understanding impact developed by Machani et al. (2025) for the RETOOL project (Horizon Europe grant No. 101132661) to assess the impact of independent advisory bodies on both climate action and democratic governance. It also, therefore, contributes to our understanding of how institutional innovations can help to strengthen democratic governance for climate transitions.