Investigating the scientific knowledge–policy interface in EU climate policy

Abstract

We provide an historical overview of the evolution of knowledge exchange architecture for climate policy in the EU. We investigate whether evolutions in the knowledge architecture reflect shifts in the politicisation of climate change. First, we outline a conceptualisation of politicisation that accounts for two types of effects: prioritisation leading to enabling conditions for knowledge exchange, and polarisation leading to constraining conditions. Next, we describe the shifting politicisation of climate change in the EU since the 1990s, followed by a discussion of the evolution of two key aspects of the knowledge exchange system: formal and informal aspects, focusing on knowledge exchange with the European Commission. Our analysis reveals connections between the development of the formal and informal aspects of the knowledge exchange architecture and the shifts in politicisation in different time periods. We find that when the politicisation of climate change led to a negative or constraining context, the informal aspects of the knowledge exchange architecture closed, making it more challenging for multidisciplinary scientific knowledge to enter the process. However, the formal aspects of the knowledge exchange architecture remained in place, even under constraining conditions. The article provides a nuanced assessment of the connections between the effects of politicisation and the potential for meaningful scientific–policy knowledge exchange, enhancing our understanding of both the politicisation of climate change and of knowledge exchange architectures.