This month’s GeoPolicy blog features an interview with Sebastian Jehle, Accredited Assistant to Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Norbert Lins. Understanding policymaking processes is vital to be able to engage with decision-makers and to provide scientific information that is both useful and timely. Sebastian was kind enough to answer some of my burning questions about life inside the Europ ...[Read More]
GeoPolicy: My experience with the EGU’s science-policy pairing scheme
“Thanks for coming, but no time for celebratory drinks,” I told my colleagues. I arrived in Brussels right after defending my doctoral thesis to brief the Finnish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Miapetra Kumpula-Natri and her team about the impact of sea-level rise and climate change on the coastal communities of the Baltic Sea. Climate science? Baltic Sea? EU Parliament? I was soon bombar ...[Read More]
GeoPolicy: How do Members of European Parliament learn about science?
Only ~5% of Members of European Parliament, or MEPs, have a background in the physical sciences1, yet many political challenges require an understanding of the science surrounding these issues. Issues such as locating and extracting mineral resources, understanding climate change impacts, and developing new low-carbon technology. The European Commission (EC) and the European Parliament (EP) have s ...[Read More]