Boosting European climate policy with a resilient knowledge-sharing framework
The European Commission uses both formal and informal structures in its knowledge-sharing framework to support the exchange and integration of scientific knowledge. However, this system’s design can draw lessons from three periods of climate politicisation, where both enabling and constraining politicisation have affected knowledge-informed policy development. European climate policies can best respond to the socio-economic challenges of the climate crisis by drawing on diverse and multidisciplinary sources of knowledge. Ensuring the resilience of this knowledge-sharing framework will help the EU to stay on course to become climate neutral by 2050 while ensuring a just and fair transition.
Key issues and recommendations
- A knowledge-sharing framework resilient to varying climate politicisation effects promotes institutional openness to multidisciplinary, critical and evaluative knowledge.
- The European Commission (hereafter: the Commission) can achieve this by systematically addressing its knowledge deficits and enhancing climate mainstreaming across formalised exchange structures (e.g. impact assessments, and EU funding schemes such as Horizon Europe), while also strengthening informal structures promoting proactive and constructive dialogue between policymakers and the scientific community (e.g., ad hoc events and workshops).
- The Commission should deepen the integration of social science knowledge to address the emerging social and political challenges of climate change.
Download