From Calculation to Conference A Historical Perspective on the WMO’s Role in Governing Climate Change, 1960-1979.

Abstract

The repercussions of CO2 emissions on the environment and the climate have caused worry among individual scientists since the 1930s. Not until the late 1960s did international organizations express similar concern for the increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Spanning from the establishment of the Scripps group during the late 1950s, to the First World Climate Conference in 1979, this thesis studies the role of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in producing and promoting anthropogenic climate change as scientific knowledge, and making anthropogenic climate change governable in the period 1960-1979. By looking at the WMO’s participation and role during the Stockholm Conference in 1972 and the First World Climate Conference in 1979, the thesis argues that the WMO engaged in international environmental governance through four aspects of governance: as an intergovernmental organization, through conferences, regimes, and expertise. Additionally, the thesis argues that the WMO contributed to promoting anthropogenic climate change knowledge in a co-production process.