英文摘要 |
Global environmental issues such as climate change and global warming have become one of the most pressing concerns for both policymakers and the general public. When climate change first appeared on the United Nations (UN) agenda, the initial international response focused on science. In 1988, the UN established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide periodic scientific assessments. Throughout the climate change negotiations, IPCC has played an increasingly important role in issue surfacing and framing, problem definition, agenda setting, consensus building and developing policy options. By assessing the IPCC process, this paper explores the scientific dimension of climate change negotiations and discusses how climate science and knowledge-based epistemic communities influence environmental decision-making. Finally, it examines the scientific implications on the field of international relations under a conceptual framework of multiple actors, transnational networks and issue linkage. |