4.2: Sustainable Development
Build innovative new approaches for harnessing science for sustainable development, whilst continuing to promote research
on specific sectoral issues, such as energy.
Other Information:
Sustainable development is one of the most daunting challenges that humanity has ever faced. At all scales, from local to
global, scientific and technological knowledge can help provide guidance and new solutions to the economic, social and environmental
problems that make current development paths unsustainable. Of the three pillars of sustainable development (environmental,
social, economic), the environment is the one that has been most closely associated with ICSU to date. However, the four major
global environmental change programmes are broadening their agendas and working together on projects on carbon, water, food
and human health, issues which underpin sustainable development. Additional complementary efforts focused primarily on local-scale
analyses are also necessary to enhance the real impact of science on development practices. At the UN World Summit on Sustainable
Development (2002), the Science and Technology Community, with ICSU responsible for the input from the science community,
pledged to make science more policy-relevant through place-based research that integrates the three pillars of sustainable
development and involves active participation of governments and civil society (ICSU 2002c). As part of the follow-up to this
commitment, an independent ad hoc Advisory Group was established to advise ICSU and other international organizations on the
scientific research priorities for sustainable development. The themes identified by this group as priorities for research
and development efforts were: - Resilience and vulnerability of social-ecological systems - Sustainable production and consumption
- Governance and institutions for sustainability - The role of behaviour, culture and values in sustainable development Addressing
these themes effectively requires building new bridges among the natural, social, and engineering sciences. It also requires
the active participation of stakeholders from outside of science. Integrating this broad array of perspectives presents a
significant challenge for the future. Meanwhile, a continuing focus on sectoral sustainable development issues, such as energy,
water and health, is also necessary. ICSU has also been an institutional partner in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an
international four-year project that was designed to provide decision-makers with the latest scientific knowledge about ecosystem
change and human well-being. This major international project helped build local capacities and networks for conducting integrated
assessments in a local to regional scale context. Proposals are now being developed for a new set of activities that build
upon this valuable local capacity and that further develop the type of place-based participatory research that is needed to
inform sustainable development policies and practices. SPECIFIC ACTIONS: • ICSU will explore, with partners, the creation
of an ongoing mechanism for convening interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder dialogues aimed at identifying the new scientific
knowledge and technical capabilities that are most needed for meeting the challenges of sustainable development; and • ICSU
will also work with partners to develop a follow-up mechanism based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to address additional
research needs, to stimulate further sub-global assessments and promote methodological developments to link spatial and temporal
scales.
Objective(s):
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