Overline: IASS Discussion Paper

Headline: How Science Has Become a Driving Force for Sustainability

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. Shutterstock/auniket prantor

22.07.2019

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. IASS

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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Solene Droy

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Dossiers

Der Chemiekonzern Bayer stellt bereits Produkte aus CO2 her.

Economic activities and consumer behaviour in developed countries are currently based mainly on the use of fossil-based raw materials, and their emissions are largely responsible for anthropogenic climate change. In efforts to reduce human effects on the climate, the avoidance of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is and remains the most important measure. But high CO2 emissions go hand in hand with a demand for carbon in the form of many of the goods that we need on a daily basis, for example for the production of plastics or fuels. Can it therefore make sense to consider the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) as a source of carbon? Since the 1970s, scientists have been researching carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies. The aim of these technologies is to re-cycle the CO2 contained in emissions as a feedstock for industrial processes. This captured CO2 could replace fossil-based carbon as a component of materials and energy carriers, thereby creating a carbon cycle.

Prototyp eines supraleitenden Stromkabels.

In the coming decades, the development of renewable energy sources (RES) such as wind and solar will play a major role in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and making our energy system more sustainable. But the places where RES are available or would be most efficient are often located far away from the densely populated and industrial areas where the energy is needed: on the open sea in the case of offshore wind and in sunnier climes in the case of solar. This means that the construction of new power lines needs to go hand in hand with RES development. In Germany for instance, expanding the electrical grid has become a crucial precondition for the success of the Energiewende.

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Overline: IASS Discussion Paper

Headline: How Science Has Become a Driving Force for Sustainability

Global Sustainability Strategy Forum

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Solene Droy

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