Read and watch the welcoming words pronounced by Luc Allemand, the Secretary general of IYBSSD, at the occasion of the High-Level Summit organized in Paris 27th June 2023 by HFSPO and several other partners.
Madame la ministre,
Ms and Mr Ministers,
Ms and Mr Directors,
Dear Scientists,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Steering Committee of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, promulgated by the United Nations General Assembly, and placed under the auspices of UNESCO, particularly welcome this High-Level Summit.
Eight years ago, already, the Member States of the United Nations have agreed on the 2030 Agenda, an ambitious program to ensure a balanced, sustainable, and inclusive development of the planet.
Scientists, like all other citizens, are directly concerned by this agenda. Moreover, they are in an exceptional position to provide key contributions to its achievement.
Bringing together basic sciences from different perspectives to improve and extend our basic knowledge of nature, as it is proposed today through this high-level summit, is certainly one of the best ways for all scientists to serve this agenda.
Engaging with the highest authorities of States from all over the world, as well as with citizens, to determine how basic sciences could be even more useful for humanity to progress toward a better world, is another goal of the International Year that is shared with this summit.
These are the reasons why, on behalf of the Steering Committee, I thank you all for being here. We are looking forward to your discussions to establish a new framework for basic sciences and their relationships to the 2030 Agenda, and to new actions where science will take its full part on the path of sustainability.
It is all the more important as the steering committee, together with over one hundred national science academies, learned societies and research networks, is supporting the initiative currently discussed between several member states of the United Nations general assembly for an international decade of all sciences for sustainability.
