Integrating institutional approaches and decision science to address climate change: a multi-level collective action research agenda

Climate change is a problem that requires a multi-scale response from the individual to the global. Each level and type of entity has some capacity to influence climate change action and policy, but as a multi-level collective action problem, it is not surprising that there is underprovision of climate change action; this challenge highlights the need to better understand decision-making processes. We propose an integrated research frontier that examines inter-level feedback processes, the role of individuals and organizations in promoting trust within and across levels, the importance of establishing and communicating norms, and inclusion of worldviews to situate decision makers within narratives of climate change. The failure to mitigate and adapt to climate change is a social science problem, perhaps the biggest social problem our society faces. To solve it requires that we advance a new frontier on decision making across a complex set of multi-level collective action relationships.