‘IPCC-envy’: Why do other science-policy issues want an IPCC, and should they?

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been at the forefront of climate science and policy for more than 35 years. Many commentators hold up the IPCC as a model for how global knowledge should be assessed, communicated and employed in complex, transnational, public policy challenges. In this essay, I lay out some reasons why other science-policy issues might indeed be envious of the IPCC, but also suggest a number of reasons why replication of the IPCC in other topic areas might be difficult and why it might not necessarily be desirable.