The Institutionalisation of Science Advice: Knowledge-brokering and the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change is a recently established advisory body, aiming to provide the European Union with scientific knowledge, expertise and advice relating to climate change. Consisting of 15 independent scientific experts, the Board builds on best available and most recent scientific evidence in order to formulate its policy advice. This paper investigates the role of the ESABCC in the institutionalization of climate science in EU-level policymaking processes (for example when setting the EU’s climate goals for 2040). It engages with theories on institutional design of advisory bodies, as well as their role as knowledge brokers and in problem/ policy framing. While it is too early to evaluate the influence of the ESABCC on EU climate policymaking, the paper, through a variety of qualitative methods, traces its institutional creation and attempts a first evaluation of its role and function in the wider EU’s knowledge architecture around climate change.