Climate Knowledge Brokers Manifesto

"The CKB [Climate Knowledge Brokers] group believes that people who are trying to address climate change or adapt to its impacts deserve high quality information to support them in their decision making."

The Climate Knowledge Brokers Manifesto was developed in a collaborative process by the Climate Knowledge Brokers (CKB) Group, a network of organisations and professionals focused on improving the quality and use of climate knowledge in decision making. This manifesto describes the essential role of climate knowledge brokers in making climate knowledge available, and sets out how CKB will help knowledge brokers be more effective and efficient through collaboration. The manifesto defines the role of climate knowledge brokers as "brokering the transfer of knowledge related to the climate from a person or organisation to another via the medium of information."

The manifesto is based on interviews with climate knowledge brokers and users of climate knowledge – about 80 in total, from all over the world. The interviews were designed to understand "their views on how climate knowledge is used, and how it can most effectively be transferred, given the multiplicity of user needs."

The manifesto starts off by outlining the challenges of climate knowledge brokering and how CKB emerged to address these challenges. It explains that the key challenges lie in effective access to and availability of climate data and information. "Many climate information users are deluged by the huge number of reports, scenarios, datasets, toolkits and other publications that is produced each year, and consequently fail to find what they need. Other users search but struggle with a lack of appropriate information. Others are not yet aware of their need to incorporate climate considerations in their analysis, planning and decision making." Climate knowledge brokers therefore play an important role working between information producers and people who use it to ensure climate knowledge is filtered, translated, and packaged in a way that is useful to the end user.

The manifesto highlights the importance of considering user needs. First of all, information should be relevant, which requires a deep understanding of user needs and data and information gaps. Secondly, it must be accessible, which means people need to be able to find it and to understand it when they do. The manifesto defines six overlapping aspects of user needs which are discussed in detail. These needs are 1) increased availability of and access to information from trusted sources; 2) information tailored to specific needs; 3) synthesised climate information; 4) contexualised with sectoral information; 5) information that is enriched with local information; and 6) access to raw data, further information, and sources.

In light of this, the manifesto looks at the characteristics of the role of climate knowledge brokers, highlighting five related aspects:

1. Chains of knowledge brokering - It is rare for the climate knowledge broker to work directly between an information provider and an end user. The manifesto makes the point that this is a complex environment with many information actors across all types of organisations. Some operate formally and deliberately in a knowledge brokering role, others less so.
2. Knowledge brokers act as filters and interfaces for climate knowledge between knowledge producers and users.
3. Knowledge brokers work across different disciplines, fields, and sectors.
4. They use a range of channels, tools, products, and services. For example, "climate information can be presented via websites, presentations, briefings, reports, fact sheets, meetings, informal discussions, infographics, videos and also via tools designed to inform a specific target group. Channels range from direct (proactive) channels – such as face to face interaction or online forums – to indirect (passive) channels like websites and databases."
5. Participation in the information gathering and knowledge production process - "Effective brokers recognise that knowledge is often more readily accepted if the knowledge production process is transparent and participatory."

The manifesto then describes the role of the CKB in improving the effectiveness of climate knowledge brokering. As stated, "Our vision is of a world in which people make climate sensitive decisions fully informed by the best available climate knowledge. We believe effective climate knowledge brokers are essential to achieving this vision, so have established CKB as an ongoing peer support group. We are collaboration-minded and seek to engage with users of climate knowledge, with funders or potential funders of climate knowledge activities and services, and of course with those who identify themselves as climate knowledge brokers." CKB firstly seeks to achieve its objectives though sharing and collaboration. In addition, "CKB aims to improve the effectiveness of existing and new climate knowledge brokers by supporting an active community of practice of climate knowledge brokers, and by facilitating the development of tools to make data and information sharing affordable and easy to implement."

The manifesto concludes with an invitation for users, funders, and knowledge brokers to participate in the CKB by referring people to their website.

Click here to download the Spanish version of the manifesto in PDF format.