For the Istanbul Innovation Days 2025, we are publishing a series of videos featuring thought leaders who have shaped our understanding of institutions. In this conversation, Sir Geoff Mulgan, co-founder of the Institutional Architecture Lab (TIAL) discusses innovation in international institutions with Jim Skea, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The two focus particularly on the importance of bridging scientific knowledge with the agency and leadership provided by governments.
Skea highlights that the role of the IPCC is in bringing together science and policy. In his words, “it’s key that the I in IPCC stands for intergovernmental.” In practice, scientists draft the reports based on existing research and governments sign off on them, with policymakers and scientists going through the text line by line, word by word, until consensus is reached. While the process may be slow, it means that governments have ownership of the reports alongside climate scientists, hopefully resulting in more advice being turned into action.
Due to the success of the IPCC, its institutional structure has been emulated in other institutions, such as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Particularly, by getting governments to give their stamp of approval, reports produced by such intergovernmental bodies carry more weight than if they were created by only scientists.
Today the IPCC stands in a different position than it did when it was founded in the 1980s. Skea emphasises that the global conversation around climate change has moved from being a contested topic overall, to debate around what appropriate responses are to combat it. Interestingly, through the technological revolutions around AI and satellite observation, the information for the IPCC to assess has exploded exponentially, presenting a new challenge for the organisation. As new organisations inspired by the IPCC are being considered, Skea advises careful consideration of how commercial entities are incorporated into assessments, as topics like mitigation are prone to conflict between interests.
Overall, Skea highlights the importance of walking the tightrope between scientific independence and the fact that important knowledge is embedded in a variety of stakeholders. As such, institutional design plays a central role in including the views of different actors, while ensuring meticulous approval processes and transparency.
