Broadening scientific engagement and inclusivity in IPCC reports through collaborative technology platforms

The growing number of scientific publications on climate change has outstripped the capacity of individuals to keep up with the literature, even when confined to selected sub-topics such as chapter sections of IPCC reports. The IPCC would benefit from the assistance of modern technology, the engagem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climate Action 2023-12, Vol.2 (1), p.49-9, Article 49
Main Authors: De-Gol, Anthony Jude, Le Quéré, Corinne, Smith, Adam J. P., Aubin Le Quéré, Marianne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/694/2739/2819
706/648/264
Assessments
Automation
Careers
Climate Change
Climate Change Management and Policy
Collaboration
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Politics
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Knowledge
Literature reviews
Modernization
Perspective
Scientists
Social Policy
Systematic review
Wildfires
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Summary:The growing number of scientific publications on climate change has outstripped the capacity of individuals to keep up with the literature, even when confined to selected sub-topics such as chapter sections of IPCC reports. The IPCC would benefit from the assistance of modern technology, the engagement and insights of a far larger pool of experts, and more frequent updates. Here we describe how technology can be tailored to provide asynchronous and connected platforms that can enhance expert’s collaborations through their potential for scalability and inclusivity, and help keep assessments up-to-date. We detail our experience with the ScienceBrief.org platform, which was developed and used during 2017–2021. We show that the timely release of short scientific briefs (e.g. on wildfires), made possible by the platform, led to broad and accurate coverage of science in mainstream and social media, including policy-oriented websites, and therefore served to broaden public exposure and understanding of science, and counter climate misinformation. While a good visual interface and user flow were necessary, incentives were key for expert’s engagement with the platform, which, while positive, remained low. We suggest that a collaborative technology platform like ScienceBrief, tailored to support a modernised process of elaborating IPCC reports, could greatly enhance IPCC assessments by making them more open and accessible, further increasing transparency. It would also enable the comprehensive inclusion of evidence and facilitate broad and high-quality scientific engagement, including from early careers and scientists from around the world. This could first be tested at the scoping stage.
ISSN:2731-9814
2731-9814
2731-3263
DOI:10.1038/s44168-023-00072-3