How Science Has Become a Driving Force for Sustainability

22.07.2019

Science has already given us a much better understanding of what we must do in order to leave our world intact for future generations. However, that understanding has had little impact on our collective behaviour. At the first Global Sustainability Strategy Forum in March 2019, 17 prominent scientists looked at how science can help bring about the changes we need to see. They have now published their findings in an IASS Discussion Paper.

A woman in Bangladesh processes red chili peppers. Decent working conditions for all are one of the goals of Agenda 2030.

According to these scientists, our current reality is characterised by three major trends: globalisation, digitalisation and sustainable development. The interaction of these three, often mutually incongruous, trends will fundamentally change our current social, economic and ecological systems. Science has a twofold responsibility in this transformation. On one hand, it must shape research and education in order to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration and the ability to solve complex systemic problems. On the other hand, it must work more intensively with representatives from the policy and practitioner communities, with business, civil society and the general public.

Bearing these challenges in mind, the authors have defined eight central tasks for science, which they describe in detail in the discussion paper. These range from a better understanding of the interactions between globalisation, digitisation and sustainable development to the creation of processes in which various actors jointly develop concepts for sustainable transformation and systemic approaches to the design of economic and political interventions.

Renowned sustainability experts such as Belay Begashaw (Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa), Elisabeth Hege (IDDRI Paris) and Joyeeta Gupta (University of Amsterdam) developed the newly published findings at the first Global Sustainability Strategy Forum.

In April, a delegation from IASS presented the results of the Forum at the Inland Department of the Office of the German Federal President. The core messages will also be published in the media and scientific journals. They will be further elaborated and broken down to the regional level for presentation at meetings between representatives of the Forum and those from politics, business and civil society later this year and at the second Global Sustainability Strategy Forum in October 2020.

Bai, X., Begashaw, B., Bursztyn, M., Chabay, I., Droy, S., Folke, C., Fukushi, K., Gupta, J., Hackmann, H., Hege, E.-b., Jaeger, C., Patwardhan, A., Renn, O., Safonov, G., Schlosser, P., Skaloud, P., Vogel, C., van der Leeuw, S., Zhang, Y. (2019): Changing the scientific approach to fast transitions to a sustainable world. Improving knowledge production for sustainable policy and practice. IASS Discussion Paper, July 2019. http://doi.org/10.2312/iass.2019.018

Global Sustainability Strategy Forum

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