How to improve the quality and impact of climate risk research: proposals in a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
Matteo Coronese, a researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, is one of the authors of the study. "Making data and codes accessible is essential for climate risk research to produce reliable evidence that is truly useful for public decision-making"
A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) systematically analyses the degree of reproducibility and reusability of scientific studies on climate risk, highlighting a significant critical issue: only a limited portion of the scientific literature makes data and codes available to a sufficient extent to allow the replication of results. Matteo Coronese, assistant professor at the Institute of Economics of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, is one of the authors of the study, presented as Perspective.
"Making data and codes accessible is not only good scientific practice: it is an essential condition for climate risk research to produce reliable and truly useful evidence for public decision-making" comments Coronese.
Climate risk research: the absence of shared and systematic standards
The study examines open science practices in climate risk research, risk management and public decision support. The results show that the lack of adoption of open science practices is not attributable to isolated individual cases, but reflects the absence of shared and systematic standards in the scientific community.
This shortcoming has significant implications: it limits the cumulative progress of knowledge, reduces the comparability between studies and weakens the use of scientific evidence in policy processes, particularly in climate risk adaptation and management policies.
The relationship between climate science and public decision-making
The study proposes a set of concrete, low-cost and immediately implementable practices to improve the transparency, reproducibility and impact of research. The aim is to pave the way for new lines of research geared towards the development of shared practices of transparency and reusability in climate science, to strengthen the interface between science and policy and to promote more informed and robust public decisions in the face of the challenges of climate change.
Study references
Adam B. Pollack, Lisa Auermuller, Casey D. Burleyson, Jentry Campbell, Madison Condon, Courtney Cooper, Matteo Coronese, Sönke Dangendorf, James Doss-Gollin, Prabhat Hegde, Casey Helgeson, Robert E. Kopp, Jan Kwakkel, Corey Lesk, Justin Mankin, Robert E. Nicholas, Jennie Rice, Samantha Roth, Vivek Srikrishnan, Moira Scheeler, Nancy Tuana, Chris Vernon, Mengqi Zhao, and Klaus Keller, Unlocking the benefits of transparent and reusable science for climate risk management, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), January 2026.
