Phase 2 Communicating current SDG 13 knowledge through Wikipedia - a collaboration between Wikipedia editors and content experts at SEI, IPCC, UNFCCC and other organisations

The project goal is to evaluate and improve key articles in the English Wikipedia that relate to climate change including extreme weather, flooding, droughts, wildfires, sea level rise, disaster risk reduction, adaptation, mitigation, renewable energy, circular economy, National Determined Contributions, social impacts, industry’s role, the IPCC and more.

The research basis of the project is the latest IPCC 6th Assessment Report and the Glasgow UNFCCC agreements from 2021.

The project is built on our experience from the ongoing Phase 1 Formas-funded SDG Wikipedia project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/SDGs/Communication_of_environment_SDGs) where we found many Wikipedia articles that get relatively high daily views (up to thousands per day), but are poor in quality regarding scientific rigour and writing, and their need for updating and repair of broken links.

Although Wikipedia is the most used knowledge site on the Internet, much of the content when it comes to complex scientific material suffers from lack of engagement by published experts in sharing their knowledge in the encyclopedia.

The open nature of Wikipedia allows for a multitude of authorship that in many cases can result in improvements and updates. But this is not the case when it comes to the SDG topics.

The role of Wikipedia in communicating climate change knowledge and in awareness-raising should not be underestimated as the world strives to become carbon-neutral over the coming years.