How relevant is climate change research for climate change policy? An empirical analysis based on Overton data

Table 4 is related to the cited institution side of the science-policy link: Which science insti- tutions received the most citations from policy documents? The table presents reputable insti- tutions of climate change research or research units located at universities, with the University Table 3. Types of policy sources most productive in publishing policy documents citing papers related to climate change research. The table differentiates between all documents of the sources citing these papers and documents focussing on climate change. All policy documents Climate change policy documents Policy source Number of policy documents Policy source Number of policy documents Government Publications Office of the European Union 34,286 Publications Office of the European Union 881 GOV.UK 19,431 Government of Canada 206 U.S. Government Publishing Office 17,649 Joint Research Centre 189 Government of Canada 12,797 European Parliamentary Research Service 157 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 11,733 GOV.UK 132 UK Parliament Select Committee Publications 8,297 U.S. Government Publishing Office 117 U.S. Government Accountability Office 8,160 Umwelt Bundesamt 109 European Parliamentary Research Service 7,947 PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency 93 City of New York 7,934 UK Parliament Select Committee Publications 82 UK Parliament Research Briefings 6,910 U.S. Government Accountability Office 69 IGO World Health Organization 32,082 World Bank 803 World Bank 22,427 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 275

International Monetary Fund 8,795 OECD 176 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 6,204 Inter-American Development Bank 169 OECD 5,953 World Health Organization 155 Inter-American Development Bank 5,787 Asian Development Bank 122 Asian Development Bank 3,814 International Organization for Migration 78 UNESCO 3,658 United Nations Environment Programme 53 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe 2,164 UNESCO 52 World Meterological Organization 1,719 Arctic Council 49 Think tank National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) 16,925 Brookings Institution 204 IZA Institute of Labor Economics 13,884 Grantham Institute 200 Brookings Institution 12,173 Center for Strategic and International Studies 182 Gatestone Institute 6,891 Overseas Development Institute 177 Atlantic Council 6,650 Center for Climate and Energy Solutions 172 Foundation for Economic Education 6,617 International Union for Conservation of Nature 163 RAND Corporation 6,415 World Resources Institute 154 The Heritage Foundation 6,175 Acton Institute 118 Acton Institute 6,163 Center for American Progress 114 Tax Foundation 4,217 Committee on Climate Change 98 Note. In this paper, we used the Overton classification for assigning institutions to governments, IGOs, and think tanks. We found that some institutions may be misclassified. For example, the Committee on Climate Change is categorized as think tank, but is a committee by the UK government to support climate policies.

According to Euan Adie the “think tank” category also includes NGOs and quasi-research institutions; the category currently includes things that don’t fit the other categories. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.t003 PLOS ONE How relevant is climate change research for climate change policy? PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693 September 22, 2022 18 / 24