Communicating Climate Change: Bridging Science and Policy

By Brenda Chaloupka

Despite frequent and alarming headlines relaying the scientific message about climate change, policy makers and the public seem not to be convinced and moved to action. 

Most climate scientists agree on the reality of climate change. They also agree on the need to improve the understanding of climate science among decision makers and the general public.

Teams of multidisciplinary, multi-institutional researchers are seeking to address some research questions in this area:

 
These teams are led by Dr. Arnold Vedlitz, holder of the Bob Bullock Chair in Government and Public Policy and director of the Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy in the George Bush School of Government and Public Service. In addition to Texas A&M, teams include researchers from University of New Orleans, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Florida A&M University.

Research findings from projects currently underway at the institute are helping to shape the answers to these important questions. Findings will help illustrate how scientific information on important problems is, or is not, utilized by decision makers and the public to guide and evaluate policy decisions and options.

Researchers conducted more than 500 face to face, unstructured interviews with stakeholders from three research locations representing Gulf of Mexico areas (Galveston Bay Region, Texas; Barataria/Terrebonne Watershed Region, Louisiana; and Apalachicola Bay Region, Florida). The information gathered will tell researchers how representative stakeholder groups currently use science information about global climate in their decision-making processes; how this varies across stakeholder groups; and what unfilled information needs these groups have.   

According to Vedlitz, the three areas chosen for this study “are particularly vulnerable to impacts on water resources, coastal ecosystems and coastal infrastructure from climate change, catastrophic events and other stressors, as evidenced by the recent hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. They face challenges that are salient to local stakeholders and decision makers.” 

In order to better understand the use of science-based information on climate change in the decision making and public policy process, Vedlitz and co-principal investigators, Dr. Eric Lindquist and Dr. Letitia Alston, put together a team of political scientists and atmospheric scientists to examine two substantive areas of decision making that are subject to climate change influences: public health and economic development.  A series of surveys were developed, one for climate scientists, the second for decision and policy-making stakeholders and the third for U.S. citizens. Two of the three surveys are complete and the third is in the field.

Recommendations from the analysis of these surveys will focus on improving information transmission and education on climate change and its probable consequences for human response and adaptation. “Not only will efforts to bridge the existing gaps be improved by an understanding of the underlying causes and mechanisms but such understanding carries a greater promise for bringing the sides of the divide closer and achieving a climate-literate public,” says Vedlitz.

Phase two of this project extends the inquiry into how these perceptions and means for transmission of scientific information affect the various stakeholders in the national and international public policy process. Data from surveys for a larger sample of policy makers, climate scientists and the public will be used for dissemination at a national workshop. Topics to be distilled from the survey data include factors that inhibit use of climate science, description of the flow of information through the policy process and recommendations for improving information flow, understanding and use of science among all groups.

Developing a deeper understanding of how scientific information is understood and utilized by decision makers at all levels, is key to the users’ ability to make meaningful and critical policy decisions. Researchers are working to help bridge the gap between what scientists know and how the public and decision makers receive and use this important information.