Typologies of climate service co-creation approaches in practice

Abstract

Co-creation is seen as instrumental in bridging the gap between scientific innovation in climate services and their use in decision-making. However, there has been limited engagement with the different types of co-creation approaches that exist in practice, how they are executed, how they bridge the usability gap, and in what situations they would be most effective. This study aims to characterise climate service co-creation in practice, and develop typologies to explore how they bridge the usability gap. We conducted Thematic and Ideal Type Analyses of 33 case studies developed from Key Informant Interviews and Content Analysis of co-creation process documents. We show that i) co-creation approaches place a strong emphasis on the climate information (its usability and usefulness) to improve use of climate services, ii) co-creation in practice deviates from the theoretical approach, and iii) in addition to other contextual factors, the mode (research and commissioned) of co-creation has a strong influence on the execution of co-creation processes. We develop three typologies of climate service co-creation in practice; i) information-intensive (n = 21), concerned with producing useful information; ii) functional-use intensive (n = 5), concerned with the usability of the co-created information in decision-making; and, iii) innovation-oriented (n = 7), concerned with embedding new insights into innovative climate services. This study benefits researchers and practitioners implementing co-creation in the field of climate services to understand the types of co-creation that exist, the risks associated with each type, and the level to which each type may influence the use of climate services.