Klimatförnekelse har länge varit en allvarlig flaskhals för beslut i klimatfrågor. Även om stats- och regeringscheferna på COP26 i Glasgow överlag betonade både allvaret i klimatkrisen och vikten av att vidta åtgärder betyder det inte att förnekarna är utspelade, än mindre att fossilbolagens företrädare kryper tillbaka, tvärtom är den i hög grad närvarande på COP26.
Av den såvitt känt största sammanställningen av forskningen om vetenskapsförnekelse, som forskare vid CCL varit med om att genomföra, framgår att klimatförnekelsen är utbredd i en rad länder och att den inte sällan är organiserad. Nyligen påstods det på DN debatt att många svenska är klimatskeptiker, men vid närmare genomgång visar sig det påståendet vara felaktigt, säger Mikael Karlsson, docent på CCL, i en replik på DN debatt. I själva verket anser nästan alla svenskar att människan bidrar till den globala uppvärmningen.
The academics from Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University will host a workshop at the Nordic Pavillion about ways to engage with – or disengage from – climate denial debates. Science denial is a serious bottleneck for climate policymaking. The aim of this workshop is to more fully describe climate denial and develop counteractive strategies with researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders.
Image mapping how science denial plays a role in science and policy delay in Karlsson’s 2020 paper. Read more here
A transdisciplinary workshop at COP26
We are delighted to have the opportunity to work through the questions of denial together with colleagues from across the Nordics to understand how the tricky information landscape can be worked with in order to transcend denial and misinformation during public discussion and debate. It a growing concern here within Uppsala University that there is a challenge engaging the public online and in person with questions about climate change. We see this very often, for example, in comments below our social media posts about climate science. This is not an isolated concern, however, with many actors involved in the conversation around the world about the role of social media in the age of information and misinformation saturation. We will host this workshop at the global meeting for climate negotiations in order to explore new ways of working through this challenge.
What can we scientists do?
One of the goals in post-graduate education is to equip young academics with the skills to contribute their scientific output in societal development and debate. But how to do so in a world of polarising information and misinformation? Our workshop will pilot a method for developing counteractive strategies with colleagues from across the Nordics and provide them the opportunity to pose their questions, to share their practises and to deepen their understandings of the ways in which denial can limit public debate. Together with policymakers and other stakeholders we anticipate a discussion that will develop concrete proposals for action and deepened understandings of the experiences of denial across the public sector. We will asses this method with feedback from participants at COP26 and then follow this up with a workshop at Uppsala University.
Science communication and climate change misinformation is an area of key concern for us at Climate Change Leadership. We welcome your reflections and thoughts, so please do not hesitate to connect with us about our future work in this area and questions for this workshop in particular! You can tweet @CCLUPPSALA or email laila.mendy@geo.uu.se
