ECCI Evidence Statement: Scotland’s climate policy & knowledge brokerage

ECCI recently published its newest Evidence Statement: Scotland’s climate policy & knowledge brokerage, based on work by ClimateXChange and authored by Dr Kate Donovan and Dr Ashrika Shama.

How have priorities in climate policymaking changed since the Scottish Government’s centre of expertise on climate change, ClimateXChange (CXC), was established in 2011?

This research examines the evolution of evidence demand from the Scottish Government through CXC and explores what this reveals about changing priorities in climate policymaking.

Governments around the world are navigating increasingly complex and uncertain climate policy landscapes. As climate risks intensify and policy choices carry far-reaching social, economic and environmental implications, policymakers rely on a diverse suite of evidence to design and implement strategies for mitigation, adaptation and resilience building.

In this context, knowledge brokers play a central role in enabling evidence-informed climate governance. One such knowledge broker organisation is ClimateXChange, established in 2011 as the Scottish Government’s centre of expertise on climate change, with a secretariat based at ECCI.

Drawing on a review of 299 research outputs commissioned between 2011 and 2024, research analysed how evidence asks have shifted over time and considers the implications of these shifts for the future of knowledge brokerage.

ECCI Evidence Statement - Scotland’s climate policy: Implications for knowledge brokerage

The full paper was also published this week by Science Direct.

ECCI Evidence Statement: Co-Benefits

Our first ECCI evidence brief, published on the release of the new Climate Change Plan for Scotland, highlighted how co-benefits – the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate actions – can support and strengthen collaborative climate action and contribute to delivering the Plan. Written by Andrew Sudmant, Ruaidhri Higgins-Lavery and Jamie Brogan.

ECCI Evidence Statement: The co-benefits of climate action in Scotland