For the development of a new kind of science.
As we are going forward in our reading of the report The Future is Now, we now come to part 3.2 whose title is Sustainability science. As a matter of fact, the 17 independent scientists who prepared this science report about the SDGs plead for the development of a new kind of science, based of sustainability and guided by SDGs.
As we are preparing the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, it will be an interesting discussion to have about the relationships of basic sciences and this sustainability science. Some aspects of the latter will seem obviously perfectly in line with what basic scientists are already doing or, at least, trying to promote. That will be the easy part.
Questions and discussions
But others will raise questions about priorities, and changing the ways to do science. Indeed, we will be here at the nexus of how to harness basic sciences to achieve sustainable development. Certainly changes should be made. But which ones?
For today, let just read the key messages of this part. we will discuss details along next weeks.
- Sustainability science can help tackle the trade-offs and contested issues involved in implementing the 2030 Agenda. New initiatives are needed that bring together science communities, policymakers, funders, representatives of lay, practical and indigenous knowledge and other stakeholders to scale up sustainability science and transform scientific institutions towards engaged knowledge production for sustainable development.
- The United Nations should launch a globally coordinated knowledge platform to synthesize existing international and country-by-country expertise on transformation pathways from scientific and nonscientific sources, including lay, practical and indigenous knowledge.
- Educational institutions at every level, especially universities, should incorporate high-quality theoretical and practically oriented courses of study on sustainable development.
