policymakers demonstrate

310 Paul Ekins, Paul Drummond, and Jim Watson
approach. Economic perspectives therefore need to be combined with perspectives
from other disciplines, including engineering, physical sciences, natural
sciences and other social sciences.
The Role of Scientific Advice
The interface between science and policy is often populated by a range of
institutions that are designed to inform government policies and strategies.
Wilsdon and Doubleday (2015) emphasize the diversity of approaches used
in different countries, but nevertheless they identify four common approaches
of ‘high-level advisory councils’, more specialist ‘scientific advisory committees’,
‘chief scientific advisers’ and ‘national academies and learned societies’.
They note that in many countries more than one of these approaches is used in
parallel, and that countries differ significantly in the extent to which scientific
advice is sought formally or informally. They also argue that scientific advice
systems need to deal with the fundamental differences between the science and
policy worlds: ‘debates about scientific advice often focus on the “supply-side”
of the science-policy interface. But the “demand-side” is equally important:
advisory bodies need a sophisticated understanding of how policy-making processes
work, and the pressures and constraints under which politicians, officials
and decision makers operate’ (Wilsdon and Doubleday, 2015). Whilst these
institutions are largely populated by natural scientists and engineers, this is not
exclusively the case, with economic expertise included in some scientific advisory
structures. However, it is important to remember that economics expertise
is already embedded in policy-making in a much broader way. This includes the
use of specific bodies that are set up to provide economic advice – either inside
government or independent from it. Perhaps more importantly, economics has
a central role in government departments in many countries. The civil service
often includes large numbers of economists, and economic tools such as cost
benefit analysis are used routinely to support decision-making. These tools tend
to be rooted in traditional neoclassical economics, and this extends to their treatment
of environmental impacts and natural resources (see Section 7.2). It is
less common for economic ideas from outside mainstream neoclassical economics
to be represented and used, however there are some exceptions to this.
For example, the UK government’s Cabinet Office established a ‘behavioural
insights team’ (known more popularly as the ‘Nudge Unit’) in 2010, which
applies behavioural economics to a range of policy questions, including how to
improve the adoption of energy efficiency measures.
Scientific Advice Structures in the EU
The European Governance White Paper (2001) called for a number of reforms
that aimed to make European institutions more responsive and accountable
(European Commission, 2001). These included proposed reforms to the use and