CLIMATE IN THE MAKING - USING DELPHI FOR FINNISH CLIMATE POLICY

In the assessment of the present state of climate change and the proje ction of its future development and impacts on human society, one of t he core issues is the interaction between decision makers and the scie ntific community, Knowledge of the human and natural processes behind climatic change and of the risks involved should be communicated to po licy makers in a form that is both comprehensible and useful in the fo rmulation of policy measures, At the same time, the scientific communi ty must meet the practical requirements and goals for research set by decision makers, even if this creates problems involving the validity of overly hasty answers to questions of paramount complexity, The purp ose of this paper is to present some results of the study dealing with these questions and in particular to discuss the future scenarios pro duced in the course of that project. (C) 1997 published by Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.