2020 Volume 26 Pages 7-23
The 2015 Paris Agreement highlighted the aim of holding the increase in global average temperature below 2°C above pre-industrial levels（the so-called “2-degree” climate change target）. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change（IPCC）have argued that, calculating backward from this target, drastic changes in society are required within a short time period. To achieve such a transformation, international conferences on climate change have increasingly placed technological options, that may be effective but are also potentially harmful, on the agenda such as climate engineering and genetic engineering for adaptation to climate change. This paper focuses on the role of experts as promoters of such social and technological changes.
With reference to actor-network theory, especially Bruno Latour’s argument（Latour 2005）, this paper discusses the role of experts in promoting social change by the networking of diverse actors operating in different fields. We distinguish two types of approach to the issue of climate change : the global-model and local-environment perspectives. In the former approach, experts gather at international conferences such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference, IPCC, etc., and discuss current and future projections of climate change, international frameworks of countermeasures, and technological options for achieving climate targets. In the latter approach, experts discuss measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to deal with the impact of climate change in local contexts. These latter initiatives also draw on people’s daily experiences and the accumulation of traditional and local ecological knowledge.
In this paper, the relationship between these two perspectives is discussed. First, the paper points out the large gap in Japan between proponents of the global-model perspective and those adopting the local-environment perspective, and it contends that this is one of the main reasons why the debate on climate change has not progressed much in Japan. The paper then reviews previous studies that have analyzed the relationship between the global-model and local-environment perspectives, focusing on the role of experts linking the two approaches. Some studies start from in-depth interviews and participatory observation of the global-model world and then examine the type of relationship the experts of the field have with the corre-sponding local-environment approach. Other studies do the reverse, considering experts who apply the local-environment approach and examining thier connection with people pursuing the global-model approach. Based on these reviews, the paper lays out the possible climate change research agenda from the point of view of environmental sociology. Finally, the paper discusses the practical implications of such sociological analyses and the role of environmental sociologists as experts who can link these two perspectives.
