Sustainable Development – the Role of International Science

ICSU Headquarters, Paris

February 2002

The Paris Meeting

• Organised by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)

• Funded by an ICSU grant• Co-ordinated by IHDP (Sylvia Karlsson and Jill

Jäger)

Participants (Alphabet Soup)

• ICSU• IHDP• IGBP• WCRP• START• DIVERSITAS

• SCOPE• IUBS• IUGS• IGU• IGOS

Themes of the Workshop

• Contributions so far

• Planned contributions

• Justifying the role of science for sustainable development

• How science will have to change

• Commitments to change

The Role of Earth System Science

• Global Change and the Earth System: A planet under pressure. IGBP Science Series No. 4, 2001

• Challenges of a Changing Earth: Proceedings of the Global Change Open Science Conference, Amsterdam, July 2001

How has science contributed to solving sustainability issues?

• Example: cities where science has contributed to the reduction of air and water pollution

• Future challenge: urbanisation and the increasing number of megacities

Earth System Science since Agenda 21 (a self-evaluation)

• Monitoring (**)

• Models (* - **)

• Education (*)

• Integrated Research (*)

• Training and Capacity Building (*)

• Communication (**)

Commitments of the Earth System Science Community

• Building an improved, integrative, participatory and usable science, applicable from local to global scales

• Responding to the urgent needs for monitoring, model development, integrated research, training and capacity building, education and communication