Systematic reviews – learning on climate solutions in the social sciences

Guest speaker: Prof. Dr. Jan Minx

Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds

28 November 2019, 15:15-16:45, Bundesstrasse 53, 20146 Hamburg, Room 022/023

Synopsis:

With the establishment of the Paris Agreement on climate change the world has entered a new era of climate solutions. While climate change assessments as undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been successful in understanding the physical science basis of anthropogenic climate change, learning on plausible future societal developments and climate solutions has remained limited over the last three decades. This is caused by the different structure, organization and scientific practices across the social sciences and humanities that prohibit systematic learning. Above all, there is a lack of a synthetic research culture understood as formal research on research results, including meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Performing systematic review work is also crucial in times of big literature where the body of scientific publications on climate change is vast and fast growing as selection bias in scientific assessment becomes a growing concern.

Our guest speaker Jan Minx has in-depth experience of the IPCC process through his involvement in AR5 Working Group III. One of his current focuses lies on pushing forward and coordinating systematic review methods for evidence synthesis in the social science to support more meaningful assessment of our current knowledge on climate solutions. He takes an interdisciplinary research approach to issues of energy, climate change and sustainable development with applications to cities and infrastructure, global supply chain networks as well as historic and future transformation processes of societies and their governance. His presentation at the first CLICCS Convent and the opportunity for discussion will allow the CLICCS projects to evaluate the applicability of the systematic review methodology for their respective projects.

Output:

The Convent will provide the chance to strengthen the links between CLICCS themes and projects. We will brainstorm and collect topics for potential systematic review that have the potential to support the individual research projects in CLICCS and the CLICCS synthesis as a whole. Therefore, they may be a valuable resource also for the Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook. In order to support coordinated work on individual or joint systematic review projects in CLICCS, we also plan to organize an in-depth training workshop (1-2 days) in spring 2020, where all CLICCS members who plan to conduct a systematic review will be guided through the process and trained in the methods for producing strong systematic reviews that fit into the overall CLICCS research question on possible and plausible climate futures.

Session format:

40min presentation by our guest speaker followed by 30min Q&A and brainstorming of potential systematic review topics. Drinks will be provided at the end of the session for further opportunity for informal discussion.