Existing science design, funding and practice fail to address complex global issues, they pointed out
The current science around sustainability or sustainability science model requires a fundamental revamp to keep up with the pace and intricacy of climate challenges, argued a high-level Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability (GCSMS).
GCSMS was established in 2021 by the International Science Council (ISC), a non-profit.
Existing science design, funding and practice fail to address complex global issues, the committee said in a report launched at the UN’s High-Level Political Forum on July 17, 2023.
The commission recommended establishing an ambitious $1 billion per year mission science network of Regional Sustainability Hubs across the world to rectify the issue.
Also read: World off-track to meet SDGs; global hunger back to 2005 levels, says UN secretary general
These hubs would address context-specific and complex issues — from climate change and malnutrition to water security and clean energy — through a systematic engagement process, GCSMS recommended in the report Flipping the Science Model: A Roadmap to Science Missions for Sustainability.
The hub would deal with myriad challenges from problem definition to implementation by engaging key stakeholders of the regions, particularly those in the Global South.
Though this sort of initiative costs not even one per cent of the global annual research and development budget, it would significantly accelerate the progress towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development.
“Sustainability is no longer an aspiration; it has become an imperative,” said Ambassador Csaba Korosi, president of the UN General Assembly.
To seek integrated and sustainable solutions, policy and political decisions at the United Nations must be supported by science-based evidence, Korosi added.
Many recent reports have pitched that world is way off track from meeting the UN-mandated sustainable development goals (SDG).
Almost halfway to meeting the 2030 deadline, countries remain far from achieving poverty eradication goals, according to the latest UN SDG progress report. Nearly 1.1 billion of the 6.1 billion people across 110 countries are poor, noted the UNDP’s latest multi-dimensional poverty estimates.
Also read: Road to 2030: Leaders at UN meet call for renewed commitment to eradicate poverty
Moreover, global hunger is back to 2005 levels and nearly 600 million people will remain mired in extreme poverty by 2030, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on July 17 2023.
To address these challenges, the commission called for a ‘mission science’ approach that can bring together the fragmented, compartmentalised scientific knowledge that often fails to connect with society’s most immediate needs.
Just as the global community has used big science approaches to build infrastructure like CERN and the Square Kilometer Array, a similar mindset should be applied, particularly in the Global South, to address sustainable development challenges, said Commission co-chair Irina Bokova, former director-General of UNESCO.
“Unless funders accept the need to transform their funding instruments to promote transdisciplinary stakeholder-engaged research, science will continue to be under-exploited in addressing the challenges of the 2030 Agenda,” Bokova added.
Actionable scientific knowledge can be generated only through frank dialogues between scientists and funders based on trust, said Peter Gluckman, president of ISC.
“The same applies to the interaction of scientists with policy-makers on the one hand and with local and indigenous communities on the other, as both sides are exposed to the need to find solutions to complex sustainability challenges at multiple scales,” Gluckman added.
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