A recent analysis entitled "The Reuters Hot List" ranked the 1,000 "most influential" climate scientists—largely based on their publication record and social media engagement. Scientists from the global south are vastly under-represented in the list, with, for example, only five African scientists included. Meanwhile, only 122 of the 1,000 authors are female.

"Knowledge production and circulation are skewed and incomplete, and this distorts and impoverishes public discourse on important topics. Ultimately, this has deleterious consequences in policies and practice," says Farhana Sultana, associate professor of geography and the environment. "[Our current system] ends up reproducing a knowledge system that is exclusionary and misses out not just a diversity of voices, but perpetuates the colonial practices of discounting of knowledge, lived experiences and wisdom from many global-south contexts." Read more in the Carbon Brief article, "Analysis: The lack of diversity in climate-science research."