Sustainable development is probably the most daunting challenge that humanity has ever faced, requiring that fundamental issues be addressed immediately at the local, regional and global levels. At all scales, scientific knowledge and appropriate technologies are central to resolving the economic, social and environmental problems that make current development paths unsustainable. Providing a more equitable and sustainable future for all requires novel integrated approaches that fully incorporate existing and new scientific knowledge. Science has now accumulated clear evidence of how the Earth System is changing and a good understanding of how those changes will affect society and human well-being.

A recent report summarizing the state of knowledge, prepared by research communities for the International Council for Science (ICSU), concluded that ‘humanity has reached a point in history at which a prerequisite for development – the continued functioning of the Earth System as we know it – is at risk. Without fundamental changes in the human drivers affecting the Earth System, and without actions to enhance the resilience and decrease the vulnerability of human communities, it is now clear that changes in climate, hydrological cycles, food systems, sea level, biodiversity, ecosystem services and other areas will lead to massive human suffering. If unchecked or unmitigated, these changes will retard or reverse progress towards broadly shared economic, social and environmental goals.’

However, despite this clear scientific evidence, the implementation of sustainable development has to a large extent failed so far, and there often seems to be a lack of urgency among policy makers when addressing sustainable development issues. There appears to be a serious disconnect between scientific knowledge and the way that policy is formulated, leading to calls for improvements in the science-policy interface. However, there is also rarely a good understanding of what this interface is, let alone how it could be improved.

In this paper we will therefore seek to explain the current science-policy interface, with examples drawn from interface processes mainly at the global level, and we will investigate the criteria that are needed to ensure a successful science-policy interaction. We will then outline the main actions that need to be taken for improving the science-policy interface.

For the whole article, see attached pdf.

Attachments:

Glaser, Bates_Enhancing Science-Policy Links for Global Sustainability.pdf