Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge in the IPCC reports: a Systematic Comparative Analysis

We recently witness an increasing inclusion of so-called indigenous or traditional knowledge (ITK) in multi-level climate governance arrangements. Some scholars ascribe this development a high potential for fostering legitimacy and effectivity of global climate governance. However, there are also more critical voices, considering the existing political inclusion of ITK deficient or inadequate. In view of the ongoing controversial discussion, this paper critically studies the scope and modalities of ITK inclusion with reference to one of the crucial sources of epistemic authority within global climate governance – the IPCC. The empirical analysis conducts a systematic quantitative and qualitative content analysis of IPCC Assessment Reports and Special Reports from 1995 to 2019. It studies the different conceptualizations of ITK over time, as well as dominant legitimation narratives arguing for the inclusion of ITK in climate governance. In a second step, consequences for the legitimacy of the IPCC as epistemic authority and global climate governance arrangements more in general are deduced and discussed.