ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the relationship between the natural sciences and policy, which is the main topic of the literature. It shows how scientists, politicians and political scientists see the problem; and illustrates science-policy relationship using international assessments and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES) as examples before closing with a few concluding observations. Decision makers and politicians like to present science as the ultimate justification of environmental policies. IPBES illustrates the evolution of current conception of the science-policy interface and of efforts to bring order in the international provision of scientific advice. Politics starts with issue framing. Institutions created to pursue policies embody a particular conception of the relationship between human societies and the natural world. The IPBES has been created with one basic lesson in mind: governments must play a role in assessments if the latter are to have any impact on policy. The Global Biodiversity Assessment (GBA) was faulted precisely for this failure.
