Planet Under Pressure-Pre-Rio Summit Conference, London 2012

I attended this conference in March 2012 and wrote this summary for my funding agency...

Planet under pressure, was a conference on solutions that explored how science can identify and limit risks in the face of increasing human impacts on the Earth. There was a focus on boosting science education and interdisciplinary inquiry and maintaining investments in systems and agencies devoted to comprehending change. The plenary sessions of the conference and sessions altogether was a very good mix of people and presentations from diverse fields that offered unique perspective on different environmental problems and ways to solve them. Following is the compilation of points from some of the illuminating discussions and presentations   at the conference.Continued functioning of the earth system is at risk and urgent action is required to avoid ‘intensifying risks of economic, ecological and social crises, creating potential for a humanitarian emergency on a global scale’. The economic, ecological, social, cultural and political systems are increasingly interconnected and interdependent. Such an interconnected and interdependent system may cause changes in the earth systems and move us beyond safe natural boundaries but at the same time the same interconnectedness provides potential for innovative solutions.Biggest challenge in safeguarding Earth’s natural processes and ensuring well-being of the society are: poverty, conflict over resources and deteriorating human and ecosystem health. As consumption accelerates everywhere and world population rises everywhere it becomes crucial to work towards a ‘distant ideal of sustainable development’. There is a need to seek for new knowledge and solutions to impending global crises.
In an era where humanity’s impact on the Earth system has become comparable to planetary-scale geological processes such as ice ages. Consensus is growing that we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which many Earth-system processes and the living fabric of ecosystems are now dominated by human activities. That the Earth has experienced large-scale, abrupt changes in the past indicates that it could experience similar changes in the future. This recognition has led researchers to take the first step to identify planetary and regional thresholds and boundaries that, if crossed, could generate unacceptable environmental and social change. There is growing evidence that diverse partnerships amongst local, national and regional governments as well as business and civil society provide essential safety nets should singular global policies fail – a polycentric approach for planetary stewardship.These insights from recent research demand a new perception of responsibilities and accountabilities of nation states to support planetary stewardship. This requires looking at a broader picture and aiming global sustainability. A crucial transformation is to move away from income as the key constituent of well-being and to develop new indicators that measure actual improvements in well-being at all scales. Equity in opportunities to improve well-being and eradication of poverty at the individual level will also play pivotal roles in the transition towards planetary stewardship.Research plays a significant role in monitoring change, determining thresholds, developing new technologies and processes, and providing solutions. The international global-change research community proposes a new contract between science and society in recognition that science must inform policy to make more wise and timely decisions and that innovation should be informed by diverse local needs and conditions.  The challenges facing a planet under pressure demand a new approach to research that is more integrative, international and solutions-oriented. We need to link high-quality focused scientific research to new policy-relevant interdisciplinary efforts for global sustainability. This research must integrate across existing research programmes and disciplines, across all domains of research as well as local knowledge systems and must be co-designed and implemented with input from governments, civil society, research funders, and the private sector.  There needs to be more interactive dialogues on global sustainability among the various stakeholders and the policy-making community at different scales. Such interactions should be designed to bring societal relevance and trust to science-policy interfaces, and more effectively inform decision-making to keep pace with rapid global change.Such initiatives need to be supported by greater commitment to fund and support capacity-building in science and education globally, particularly in developing countries. Also, a strong commitment to both applied and pure research and increased efforts to bring together disciplines, across all research domains is necessary.  Continued exploration of new areas of knowledge, such as theoretical and applied research in behavioural science and economics addressing ecological and social tipping points and irreversibility at multiple levels can be very insightful.The new UN-Sect General’s Global Sustainability Panel Report, Resilient People, Resilient Planet, provides a strong strategic framework for a sustainable future while calling for a marked strengthening of the interface between science and policy. It is important to take account of the synergies and trade-offs in and between areas such as “food, water and energy security, maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services, sustainable urbanization, social inclusion and livelihoods, protection of seas and oceans, and sustainable consumption and production”. The research community should be involved in the development of goals, targets and indicators, recognizing interconnected issues and building on existing measures of well-being. They should apply to all levels of governance. Recognition of the monetary and non-monetary values of public goods such as ecosystem services, education, health and global common resources such as the oceans and the atmosphere. These must be properly factored into management and decision-making frameworks at the national and sub-national levels to ensure that economic activities do not impose external costs on the global commons. Corrective measures that internalize costs and minimize the impacts on the commons need to be identified and implemented through regulatory and market-based mechanisms.
Current measure of national well-being, gross domestic product, needs to be replaced with a measure that fully captures the impact of human economic activity.Conference officials cited Brazil and India as examples. From 1990 to 2008, Brazil’s G.D.P. per capita rose 34 percent and India’s, 120 percent. But the picture changes when another measure known as the inclusive wealth indicator is used. It deducts declines in “natural capital,” things like forests and minerals. By this measure, Brazil’s wealth rose by just 3 percent and India’s by 9 percent. It is crucial for people to adopt “stepwise action that demonstrates success and builds popular support instead of intensifying divisions-as so many policy approaches have on climate have done so far” said Stephen Schneider.