Broadening scientific engagement and inclusivity in IPCC reports through collaborative technology platforms

De-Gol, Anthony J., Le Quéré, Corinne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2319-0452, Smith, Adam J. P. and Le Quéré, Marianne Aubin (2023) Broadening scientific engagement and inclusivity in IPCC reports through collaborative technology platforms. npj Climate Action, 2. ISSN 2731-9814

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Abstract

The growing number of scientific publications on climate change has outstripped the capacity of individuals to keep up with the literature, even when confined to selected sub-topics such as chapter sections of IPCC reports. The IPCC would benefit from the assistance of modern technology, the engagement and insights of a far larger pool of experts, and more frequent updates. Here we describe how technology can be tailored to provide asynchronous and connected platforms that can enhance expert’s collaborations through their potential for scalability and inclusivity, and help keep assessments up-to-date. We detail our experience with the ScienceBrief.org platform, which was developed and used during 2017–2021. We show that the timely release of short scientific briefs (e.g. on wildfires), made possible by the platform, led to broad and accurate coverage of science in mainstream and social media, including policy-oriented websites, and therefore served to broaden public exposure and understanding of science, and counter climate misinformation. While a good visual interface and user flow were necessary, incentives were key for expert’s engagement with the platform, which, while positive, remained low. We suggest that a collaborative technology platform like ScienceBrief, tailored to support a modernised process of elaborating IPCC reports, could greatly enhance IPCC assessments by making them more open and accessible, further increasing transparency. It would also enable the comprehensive inclusion of evidence and facilitate broad and high-quality scientific engagement, including from early careers and scientists from around the world. This could first be tested at the scoping stage.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability statement: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Funding information: ScienceBrief has received funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council International Opportunities Fund (2016–2019; grant no. NE/N013891/1), the European Horizon 2020 CRESCENDO (grant no. 641816), 4C (grant no. 821003), and VERIFY (grant no. 776810) projects, the University of East Anglia’s Global Carbon Budget internal research grant and support from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. CLQ receives funding by the Royal Society grant RP\R1\191063).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2024 10:26
Last Modified:	13 Aug 2024 00:36
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96009
DOI:	10.1038/s44168-023-00072-3

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