Early science-policy interactions in climate change: lessons from the Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases

The consensus-based science advisory apparatus of the global climate regime is frequently faulted for achieving legitimacy at the cost of compromising the policy specificity of its assessments. The merits of an alternate corporatist model with closed-door interaction between a few experts and stakeholders are examined here by exhuming the legacy of the Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases (AGGG). The study concludes that while such a model engendered policy innovation in the short term, it caused the erosion of scientific and political support over the longer term, leading to the marginalization of the AGGG. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.