How do different disciplinary communities understand the uncertainties of modeling in international climate change and energy research?

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Planning mitigation approaches in climate change requires highly complex modelling to be performed of global climate and energy systems. All modelling requires a number of underlying assumptions to be made so that reality may be conveniently represented; however, in the case of climate change, systemic uncertainties and decision risks are extremely high. Consequently uncertainties must be handled with particular rigour. Scientists may assume that modelling work is guided by strict positivist principles and often do not appreciate the extent to which their understanding of their work is socially constructed. I intend to explore why people in different disciplinary communities may deal with the inherent uncertainties in what they do in the way they do. This will involve identifying and exploring what conceptual models these groups use to understand their practices and more widely the process of doing climate science or energy systems research. It is hoped that this may lead to a better understanding of what institutional structures and best practices can facilitate open and constructive discourses on this topic.