ABSTRACT
The question addressed here is how the scientific community, described as the global research enterprise, raised the issue of global environmental change and shaped political responses to it, in particular the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). 1 Research in the natural sciences related to climate, energy and ecology are all considered parts of the same enterprise because they rely on the same global data sets and modelling capacities and are well organised internationally (Boehmer-Christiansen 1994a). Did this enterprise by the scientific community (as it likes to describe itself) effectively influence international policy on global environmental change, as is widely assumed and even predicted (Haas, P. 1990)? Or did it primarily act to create both future markets for its products and new findings using new space and information technologies? Another way of posing the question is to enquire to what extent international agreements commit governments to do more than engage in further research and data collection, especially more than they would have done anyway. If it is likely that they did not do so, then doubts may be raised both about the benign role of epistemic communities and about the impact and function of international environmental regimes (Young 1989). Attention is drawn to wider problems which may arise for environmental policy and society if purely science-based international environmental agreements are adopted.
