LIST OF PANELS

Global environmental assessments (GEAs) are large-scale social processes where multiple experts and stakeholders assemble, discuss, and synthesize existing scientific knowledge on complex environmental policy issues with a view towards informing public policy discourses and decision makers. Prominent examples include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) processes. There is mounting empirical evidence showing that a shift from problem-focused GEAs drawn predominantly from natural science expertise, towards solution-oriented policy assessments that require more inclusive knowledge-domains, is currently underway. There also appears to be an increasing demand for comprehensive ex post and ex ante assessments of environment-related policy options operating at multiple levels of governance, involving multiple governments, and taking into account multiple policy objectives. This panel aims to discuss and inform future research on the challenges, opportunities and options for public policy assessment in contemporary GEAs from theoretical, empirical, and methodological perspectives. It also invites contributions that are not directly related to GEAs, but other large-scale public policy assessments (where scale may refer to thematic scope, number of participants, or regional coverage), either in the environmental or other policy domains (e.g. public health) so as to enable mutual learning across domains. Potential topics that could be addressed include: The historic co-evolution of GEAs (or similar processes) and their policy contexts; conceptual frameworks for the appreciation of the potential influence of GEAs or similar processes on policy processes and discourses; methodological and research organization challenges concerning the assessment of public policy options in GEAs, including how these exercises can deal with complexity and pervasive uncertainties in knowledge; options for the treatment of ethical issues and disputed divergent viewpoints in policy assessments in GEAs or similar processes; and stakeholder engagement and related considerations about representation, legitimacy, and participatory deliberation in GEAs or similar large-scale public policy assessments.

Approximately 100 global environmental assessments (GEAs) have been completed since their inception in 1977, with a significant share occurring in the last 10 years. GEAs are large-scale social processes where multiple experts and stakeholders from various disciplines are brought together to discuss and synthesize existing scientific knowledge on complex environmental problems and response options to inform public policy discourses and decision-making. Over the past four decades, GEAs have evolved to become arguably the most elaborate, systematic, and formally structured mechanisms at the science-policy interface. Prominent examples include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) processes. There is mounting empirical evidence showing that a shift from problem-focused GEAs drawn predominantly from natural science expertise, towards solution-oriented policy assessments that require more inclusive knowledge-domains, is currently underway. In the context of intergovernmental GEAs processes, this shift towards the assessment of policy options raises new challenges related both to the analytical and design elements of GEAs. While a significant body of trans-disciplinary research on GEAs emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s, very little of this research focused explicitly on analyzing and contributing to the specific public policy assessment challenges and options that arise within GEAs. Moreover, there has been relatively little empirical research on the subject of GEAs since that time. This field of research appears highly promising in view of the demand for GEAs and public policy research by policymakers and society, such as in the context of the emerging set of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and more generally the rapidly developing domain of international public policy analysis.   The panel invites papers that discuss research on the challenges and opportunities for public policy assessment in contemporary GEAs from theoretical, empirical, and methodological perspectives. The panel also invites contributions that are not directly related to GEAs, but concern any type of large-scale public policy assessment, either in environmental or other policy domains (e.g. public health) so as to enable mutual learning across domains. The panel envisages three sessions, which will be adjusted in view of submitted and accepted papers. The first session will address the historic co-evolution of GEAs and their policy contexts, as well as conceptual frameworks informing the empirical analysis of the potential influence of GEAs (and similar processes) on international policy processes and discourses. The second session will focus on methodological and research organization challenges concerning the assessment of public policy options in GEAs. Finally, the third proposed session will focus on the treatment of multiple ethical perspectives and divergent viewpoints in GEAs, and on the evolving role of stakeholder engagement.