With more than 30 years of experience in producing global assessments of climate change, its impacts and solutions, the IPCC has become the authoritative voice of science on climate change. It has also become an exemplar of an intergovernmental science-policy interface. Yet, its internal workings and operating principles remain poorly known. By opening the 'black box' of the IPCC, this book shows how IPCC assessments are produced and how consensus is reached between scientific and political experts from different institutions, countries and social groups.

The book demonstrates the importance of social science research for illuminating the social and political processes which enable the making of authoritative intergovernmental knowledge. How this happens, and how this changes over time, needs careful investigation and evaluation. This is the first comprehensive book about the IPCC which critically assesses the variety of practices and discourses – epistemic, diplomatic, procedural, communicative – that make the institution function.