Comparing Regulatory Responses to the Climate and Covid-19 Crises: A Social-Systems Theory-Informed Method for Inquiry

Abstract

The climate and Covid-19 crises are both recognized as wicked problems. Scientific information on climate change has been available since the 1970s and advanced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Yet, responses by the national governments remain limited. Conversely, national governments' responses to the Covid-19 health crisis, including information from the World Health Organisation (WHO), were much swifter. Understanding the causes for that difference in can offer important insights for future expert information and governance responses to major crises affecting humanity and the wider ecology. This article sets out the method and theoretical framing for a research project addressing that knowledge gap. Examining national governance responses to climate change and Covid-19, the project assesses those against communication from the IPCC and WHO. We explain aspects of Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory that are of particular relevance to the inquiry, describe their application, and give examples of preliminary findings.

Keywords: Climate change, comparative studies, Covid-19, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), national government responses, method, scientific information, systems theory, World Health Organisation (WHO)