Global Environmental Assessments

Knowledge about environmental problems has expanded rapidly in recent decades, ashave the number and variety of processes for making large-scale scientific assessments of thoseproblems and their possible solutions. Yet too often scientific information has not been transformedinto effective and appropriate policies to protect the global environment. In this book, scholarsuse a comparative analytic framework and supporting case studies to evaluate the impact ofenvironmental assessments, looking at how, and under what conditions, global environmentalassessments influence political and economic decision makers. They find that global environmentalassessments are more likely to be influential if the process is perceived not only as scientificallycredible but also as salient to policy concerns and as generated through legitimate means. Thestudies show that although the content of the assessment clearly matters, its influence is oftendetermined more by the process that generated it and by external factors affecting the receptivenessof different audiences. Assessments that involve ongoing interactions among scientists,stakeholders, and policymakers prove particularly likely to influence behaviors.The diverse casestudies--ranging from global assessments of climate change and acid precipitation to assessments ofsea-level rise in Maine and Hawai'i and climate forecasting in Zimbabwe--embed their findings incontemporary theoretical frameworks while remaining informed by pragmatic policyconsiderations.Contributors:Liliana B. Andonova, Frank Biermann, David W. Cash, William C. Clark,Aarti Gupta, Ronald B. Mitchell, Susanne C. Moser, Anthony Patt, Noelle Eckley Selin, Wendy E. F.Torrance, Stacy D. VanDeveer

Nancy M. Dickson is Senior Research Associate and Codirector of the Science, Environment and Development Group at the Kennedy School of Government.