Science role in international environmental governance. Climate change, biodiversity and air pollution

Science is today seen as a central instrument for regulating transboundary environmental problems. There is, however, diverging understandings on to what extent, in what way and under what conditions science influence policy, as well as on how to organize the interplay between science and policy in best possible way. By bringing together two different research fields that up to this stage have had little contact – International Relation and Science and Technology Studies – this project will develop deeper and better knowledge on the dynamic interactions between science and policy in international environmental governance and the outcome of different ways to organize the science-policy interface. The project will investigate three different environmental conventions: climate change, biodiversity loss and air pollution. Guiding research questions are: How are policy-relevant knowledge configured and how does it make its way to decision-makers? To what extent and in what ways is science given institutional opportunities to be included in the decisional process? Which similarities and differences are possible to trace with regard to the configuration of science-policy relation? This project will provide with important knowledge on science role in the shaping of international environmental governance.