Multidisciplinary Composition of Climate Change Commissions: Transnational Trends and Expert Perspectives

Magnus C. Abraham-Dukuma, Michael O. Dioha, Natalia Bogado, Hemen Mark Butu, Francis N. Okpaleke, Qaraman M. Hasan, Shari Babajide Epe and Nnaemeka Vincent Emodi
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Magnus C. Abraham-Dukuma: Centre for Environmental, Resources and Energy Law, Te Piringa—Faculty of Law, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3216, New Zealand
Michael O. Dioha: Department of Energy & Environment, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi 110070, India
Natalia Bogado: Institute for Communication Psychology and Media Education, University of Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau, Germany
Hemen Mark Butu: Department of Climate Change, Graduate School, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
Francis N. Okpaleke: Department of Politics and Public Policy, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3216, New Zealand
Qaraman M. Hasan: Centre for Environmental, Resources and Energy Law, Te Piringa—Faculty of Law, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3216, New Zealand
Shari Babajide Epe: West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, Université Abdou Moumouni, Niamey 10896, Niger
Nnaemeka Vincent Emodi: Future Energy Research Group, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7005, Australia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-23

Abstract: Climate change governance has metamorphosed from multilateral pacts such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement to the enactment of country-specific dedicated legislation for mitigation and adaptation. A common feature of this phenomenon is the establishment of an expert committee on climate change, or simply, a climate change commission (CCC). For effective climate change governance, a multidisciplinary CCC will play a key role. The objective of this study is to inquire into the multidisciplinary requirements of a CCC and how multidisciplinarity can influence the efficacy of climate governance measures. Accordingly, it inquires into transnational circumstances on the disciplinary/multidisciplinary composition of CCCs and samples the perspectives of over 120 climate policy experts—through a structured survey—to draw insights into how countries could establish a suitable multidisciplinary CCC in legislative and policy processes. Key results from transnational circumstances and expert perspectives reveal the propriety of establishing CCCs to drive robust mitigation and adaptation policies. As the study shows, multiple countries have already incorporated diverse domains and backgrounds of expertise in the composition of their CCCs. Furthermore, our experts’ survey reveals overwhelming support among respondents (98%) for CCCs, and all those who support these commissions believe they should be, to some degree, independent and multidisciplinary. Experts’ perspectives reveal a spectrum of specific desirable multidisciplinary categories—legal, physical science, biosciences, energy and engineering, economics, planning, social sciences, ethics, governance, health, and communication. We also highlight some caveats regarding multidisciplinarity and reflect on the existence of quasi-institutions across countries without dedicated CCCs.

Keywords: climate change governance; climate change commission; climate policy; expert engagement; climate advisory multidisciplinarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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