Toward institutional neutrality in climate change science

Scientific institutions face public trust challenges amid political polarization. Focusing on U.S. climate change science, I argue that trust has eroded partly because the public increasingly sees scientific institutions as politicized, and this charge has grains of truth. I explore institutional neutrality as a solution. To restore public confidence, institutional neutrality should operate at three levels: policies, practices, and norms. Policies are easiest: scientific institutions can host scientists with strong public views, but they should refrain from taking official institutional positions on contested normative issues unrelated to their basic functioning. Practices and norms are harder but equally important: institutions should prioritize discovery and scholarly excellence over activism, and viewpoint diversity and open inquiry should be robust enough for stakeholders of all stripes to have access to trusted scientific expertise. Governments have a legitimate interest in promoting institutional neutrality, but capricious policies that further politicize scientific institutions undermine this interest.