CSTPR Noontime Seminar

Fall 2013 Series
12:00 - 1:00 PM

RESEARCH WITH A POLICY IMPACT

October 10, 2013

INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS SURVEY: EXPLORING POSSIBLE AVENUES FOR CLIMATE DIPLOMACY

by Björn-Ola Linnér, Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University

CSTPR Conference Room, 1333 Grandview Avenue

Free and open to the public

Watch the webcast live

Abstract: The International Negotiations Survey (INS) use questionnaire data collected at international negotiations to probe preferences among climate policy-makers, negotiators and non-state actors. The database now contains over 6000 responses from delegates to the Conference of Parties to UNFCCC since 2007 and the Rio+20 conference. Governments, delegations, NGOs and intergovernmental organisations frequently ask for INS results.

The survey measures individual preferences on a variety of topics at the negotiations, such as the effectiveness of various solutions to tackle climate change (technological innovations, market mechanisms, new economic models, regulations, population policies), components of a future climate agreement (e.g. temperature goal, binding caps, technology policy agreements, investment targets, carbon markets), roles of different non-state actors, leadership, principles for effort sharing of commitments, and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions by developing countries. The dataset offers unique empirical material for studying expressed preferences by the diverse participants at international environmental negotiations.

Biography: Björn-Ola Linnér is professor in Water and Environmental Studies and at the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research at Linköping University, Sweden, where he was the previous director (2006-2010). He is presently CIRES Visiting Fellow hosted by the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Colorado.

His research focuses on international policy-making on climate change, food security and sustainable development. His recent publications analyse integration of policies on climate change, sustainable development and low-carbon energy technologies as well as climate visualisation, transnational governance and utopian/dystopian thought in climate science and policy. Published books include among others The Return of Malthus: Environmentalism and Postwar Population–Resource Crises.

Among his awards, he is particularly glad for the Junior Faculty Prize for a Sustainable Research Environment in 2009 for promoting young researchers' careers. He has been part of several Swedish and international committees. As a researcher he has been actively involved in the international climate negotiations for several years. He was member of the Swedish delegation at the Adaptation and Approval of the fourth Assessment Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Valencia, Spain 2007. He has previously been visiting researcher at the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) at Oxford University, University of California at Santa Cruz and Hall Centre for the Humanities, University of Kansas. He is also one of the co-leaders of the Centre for Excellence Nordic Strategic Adaptation Research (NORD-STAR).