Exchanging Experiences on Communicating Scientific Concepts and Results on Climate Change
The new IPCC Working Group Reports have been published during the first half of 2007. They have been the basis for the Fourth IPCC Assessment Report, which was released at the end of 2007. The three Working Group Reports focuse on the physical base of climate change, the impacts on the ecosystem and human beings as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies and sparked off a wider debate about climate change.
Unfortunately, the current media and political debate about climate change revealed a major problem in some of the new EU member states: The level of understanding of basic science is extremely low among some key opinion makers. Many journalists and politicians hold gross misconceptions about principles of climate science and underestimate its key results. At the same time some media tend to incorrectly communicate the science by exaggerations.
The public debate in Central and Eastern Europe pays little attention to scientific aspects of climate change. The general public awareness of the basic science is extremely weak, due to low-quality media coverage.
The scientific results of the Fourth IPCC Assessment Report – and climate science in general – must be communicated responsibly to the public at large. This is crucial for fair, adequate and effective assessment of climate issues and mitigation as well as adaptation policies by the media, relevant policy makers and the public.
The scientific community obviously plays an important role in communicating the results of climate change research to the public in its respective country. Scientists can substantially support the national press and key opinion formers concerning the understanding and interpretation of research results. Communicating the causes, impacts and risks of climate change is a great challenge for scientists because of the complex context. To exchange experiences with colleagues from countries where a more mature and advanced debate takes place may be worthwhile.
For these reasons, the Environment Center of the Charles University Prague and the Heinrich Böll Foundation organized a conference on “Communicating Climate Science after IPCC – Exchanging Experiences on Communicating Scientific Concepts and Results on Climate Change”.
The main aim of the conference under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Bedřich Moldan was to bring together scientists from Central, Eastern and Western Europe. The conference offered scientists from different countries a forum to discuss the results of the IPCC Working Group Reports, and to share experiences with communicating scientific results in areas covered by the IPCC Working Groups.
The conference furthermore focused on presenting new ways of communicating scientific results on climate change.
The conference took place 25 September 2007 at the Charles University, Karolinum