About Klima- og Omstillingsrådet
(The Climate and Transition Council)
We are a volunteer-based researcher collective aiming to contribute to the climate policy debate in Denmark through relevant, interdisciplinary expertise. We consist of researchers from technical, natural and social science disciplines, as well as the humanities, who all do research on climate-related issues.
We seek to fill a gap in research-based contributions to the public debate unaddressed by other existing academic advisory councils, such as the Climate Council and the Economic Councils.
These existing academic advisory councils tend to give priority to understandings of climatechange and green transition questions with a basis in the discipline of economics, and are ultimately also bound by their mandate under the Danish Parliament. We recognize the value of the expertise offered by economics, but believe these must be complemented by perspectives offered by other academic traditions. Similarly, we believe in the importance of maintaining a truly independent and free research-based voice in the Danish debate on climate and green transition.
Our commitment to interdisciplinarity is based on the understanding that no individual researcher or academic disciplines hold all the relevant answers to the challenge of climate change and the green transition. An independent and interdisciplinary voice that is committed to taking balanced and cross-disciplinary considerations into account is therefore needed.
We commit to lifting the Danish debates about climate change and green transition to a global perspective, and to adhere to the principle of a safe and fair transition to a world that respects the planetary boundaries. This standpoint implies that we acknowledge that Western countries, including Denmark, are primarily responsible for the climate crisis, and that this crisis builds on historic and present unequal power relations. It also means that we see the climate crisis in connection with broader social and environmental sustainability challenges.
As part of our work, we want to contribute to broadening the societal debate climate and green transition. This means that we focus on contributing to more openness and discussion about the uncertainties surrounding projections of technological, economic, and societal developments, which do not always figure explicitly in the public debate. It also means that we strive to communicate complex scientific knowledge to different audiences and through different means of communication.
We are not primarily an advisory body for Danish decision-makers. Instead, our purpose is to contribute to a public debate about the true scale of the climate challenges and realistic scenarios for genuine societal transformation. This means that all aspects of society’s current structure are up for debate, including ideas about inequality, growth, consumption patterns, and well-being.