François Picard is pleased to welcome Investigative journalist Eoghan Gilmartin, award-winning investigative journalist. He’s part of The Guardian’s investigative team that published the findings of IPCC’s Working Group III, where scientific assessment moves into the politically consequential terrain of mitigation: guiding society’s response to climate change. Their investigation identified 20 authors whose affiliations raised what he describes as significant conflict-of-interest concerns, including 11 with direct links to Saudi Aramco or Saudi state institutions. And so we find ourselves at the intersection of climate science, politics, economic policy and institutional credibility: what happens when researchers helping to produce authoritative assessments of climate mitigation also have ties to actors with substantial interests in the Saudi oil industry?Gilmartin focuses particularly on the deeper issue: the relationship between transparency and institutional legitimacy, rather than evidence of illegality or scientific misconduct. As the IPCC derives much of its authority from its reputation for independence, even perceived conflicts of interest can become consequential when researchers are assessing technologies and pathways that intersect with the economic interests of their employers or funders.This becomes especially significant in the debate over carbon capture and carbon dioxide removal. Gilmartin argues that the central dispute is not whether these technologies have a legitimate role in climate mitigation, but how large that role should become. His analysis places that scientific debate within a broader struggle over the pace and character of decarbonization: whether carbon-management technologies complement rapid reductions in fossil-fuel use, or become a rationale for postponing them.And so the investigation raises larger questions about climate governance itself: who helps define the technological pathways presented as viable, necessary or desirable – and how should institutions protect scientific credibility when those pathways carry enormous geopolitical and economic consequences?
#IPCC #SaudiArabia
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