The Planet under Pressure conference, taking place over 4 days in London in March, will look at solutions to challenge of global sustainability.

The conference aims to provide scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN Rio +20 conference in June, guided by the International Council for Science’s five grand challenges for global sustainability research: observations, forecasting, thresholds, governance and economic requirements, and innovation (technological, political and societal).

“The global scientific community must deliver to society the knowledge necessary to assess the risks humanity is facing from global change. It must provide knowledge of how society can effectively mitigate dangerous changes and cope with changes we cannot manage.

“Based on the latest scientific evidence, the London Planet Under Pressure conference will provide a comprehensive update of our knowledge of the Earth system and the pressure our planet is now under. The London conference will focus the scientific community’s and the wider world’s attention on climate, ecological degradation, human well-being, planetary thresholds, food security, energy, governance across scales and poverty alleviation.

“The conference will discuss solutions, at all scales, to move societies on to a sustainable pathway.”

Planet under Pressure, conference vision

The conference will open on the evening of Sunday 25 March with a lecture by Professor Sir Robert Watson, chief scientific advisor to Defra, on Environment and development challenges: The imperative to act. Speakers and panelists over the other days of the conference will include:

• Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Laureate 2009 Economic Sciences, University of Indiana, USA;
• Will Steffen, Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, Australian National University, Australia;
• Anthony Giddens, Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics, UK;
• Sir John Beddington, UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor;
• Warren Evans, Senior Adviser, Sustainable Development, World Bank.

More information and registration…

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• The Happy Planet Index: Measuring what matters
• Global challenges and the world’s story: WWF Living Planet Report and Earth Book

The Soil Association’s annual conference 2012 will celebrate innovation in food and farming today. How governments invest in agricultural research and innovation plays a pivotal part in shaping what types of food we produce and consume, and their consequences for people, the planet and animal welfare. Given the challenges our global food system is likely to face in the coming century, it is crucial that we ensure organic and other agroecological approaches are at the heart of innovative and progressive farming. They offer a radically different model from the top-heavy system where problems are defined and tackled by lab scientists, research funders and marketers, then sold to farmers. Our vision starts with the real needs of farmers and the public, and fully involves them in finding humane and workable solutions. As Churchill said, the science should be ‘on tap, not on top’.

Organic farmers have always been creative, willing to experiment and to learn from each other and from nature. Instead of relying on the next short-lived wonder product, organic producers have been among those championing innovation and resilience in farming, building a viable market against heavy odds. Yet this independence, coupled with a commitment to ecological thinking that has until recently been unfashionable among scientists, has seen organic producers typecast as ‘anti-science’. Dispelling the myth that we’re stick-in-the-muds – validating and helping others to learn from the best examples of organic farming, land use and food systems – is crucial but only part of the task.

We must also be clear that we have much to learn in our own systems. We need to improve the total productivity of organic systems, making the most of their potential and ensuring that we can bank on them to feed the world fairly, humanely and sustainably. Organic standards need to act as rungs of a ladder, not as a ceiling, and we need to be certain that meeting them guarantees better outcomes for the planet, people and animals. And we need to find common ground with non-organic farmers and scientists so we can learn from their experience, share ours and answer our critics. Ultimately we want to see all agricultural research begin with farmers’ needs and knowhow, and take an ecological approach to farming, food and health. The challenge of diet-related ill-health, in the UK and internationally, means that we need to understand the relationship between food production and its consumption, bringing public health and nutritional expertise to the farming and food production table.

Soil Association conference

The Soil Association one-day conference, which takes place on 2 March at the Royal Agricultural halls in London, will explore the innovative change we need in food, farming, public health and nutrition. Tickets are still available – £90 for Soil Association members or £120 for the general public – find out more and purchase tickets…

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• Environmental Stewardship and food security
• Sustainable food round-up: fair food, UK food system, world agriculture, community growing

The International Dimensions of Climate Change, a new report from Foresight, the Government’s futures think tank, warns that the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate change abroad could affect the UK more than climate change at home.

Professor Sir John Beddington, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and the project’s director explained the context and aim of the report:

“Our world is getting warmer, and the UK’s extensive international economic, political and cultural ties mean that the UK is at increasing risk from impacts of climate change overseas. The UK must not respond by becoming insular but instead broaden its international reach to tackle climate change. This report is designed to help Government consider how these impacts will be felt here in the UK so we can better prepare and adapt for the future.”

Risks and opportunities

The report aimed to identify the important areas of potential impact and areas of uncertainty, examining risks to the UK across five areas:

• Foreign policy and security
• Finance and business
• Infrastructure
• Resources and commodities
• Health

The findings demonstrate how the UK is closely interconnected with the global economy and has an important role in addressing risks internationally.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman stressed the lessons for the international community:

“As John Beddington’s report recognises, the effects of climate change extend beyond environmental concerns into geo-political considerations.

“For the international community to deal with these challenges we must adapt together to ensure sustainable economic growth, maintain global stability, and support developing nations and countries particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.”

The report also identified opportunities in business, finance, global leadership and green technologies.

The evidence base

Involving over 100 experts and policymakers from across academia, government, think tanks and the private sector, the project drew on existing and new research, including nine newly commissioned peer-reviewed reports on subjects from The impacts of climate change on overseas infrastructure to Ethical, social and behavioural impacts of climate change.

The impacts in the UK

Examination of the risks to the UK showed that the UK will be vulnerable to a wide range of adverse impacts from climate change abroad and that more attention needs to be given to the impacts in the UK:

• Foreign policy and security
  International instability could increase as a consequence of climate change, either directly through extreme weather events and water system stresses, or indirectly as social and political systems in vulnerable parts of the world come under increasing strain.
  The UK has a moral, political and legal obligation to support certain regions that are particularly at risk from the effects of climate change, such as small island states which include many of the UK Overseas Territories.
• Resources and infrastructure
  Climate change could affect the overseas resources and infrastructure on which the UK depends. The impacts could arise from global temperature change, water stresses, sea level rise and extreme weather events.
  A wide range of potential threats are identified including disruption to essential infrastructure serving global markets and energy supplies, as well as the potential impact of extreme weather events on communications networks and data centres.
• Financial sector and business
  The financial sector and business more generally may fail to properly evaluate and take into account changes in the balance of risks associated with climate change overseas. UK firms managed worldwide assets of £1.2 trillion in 2008, and the failure to accurately assess their level of exposure to climate change effects may result in these assets being insufficiently insured or protected.
  The UK’s financial exposure to overseas climate change impacts may increase if international business and financial policy frameworks do not appropriately account for climate change, and institutions are exposed to additional risks and uncertainties as a result.

Other UK areas that could be affected from climate change impacts abroad include health and the UK’s role on the global stage.

Informing the Climate Change Risk Assessment

The project’s evidence base will inform the UK’s first Climate Change Risk Assessment, due to be published in January 2012, to ensure that the Government’s policy on adaptation to climate change takes appropriate account of international impacts.

The project was co-sponsored by Defra, DECC and FCO, who will use the report to inform their wider international agenda on climate change.

Further reading

• International Dimensions of Climate Change: further details including full report, commissioned reviews and think-pieces available to download.

You may also be interested in...

• Preparing communities for climate change
• Publications round-up: People and the planet, savings and tax, business value, international climate goals

Inside Government’s forum on Meeting the Global Food Security Challenges of the Future Through Science and Innovation provides an opportunity to examine and discuss integrated policies, strategies and initiatives, at both the national and local level, to reduce waste, raise food standards, increase food security and reduce food poverty.

Sessions will look at global approaches to food security, man-made and natural threats, the role of technology, supply of sustainable and nutritious products, and progress in farming.

Speakers include:

• Professor Sir John Beddington, Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government (read Professor Beddington’s exclusive preview of his speech for SD Scene…);
• Janet Allen, Director of Research, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council;
• Melanie Leech, Director General, Food and Drink Federation;
• Richard Miller, Head of Sustainability, Technology Strategy Board;
• Dr David Evans, SCI BioResources Group;
• Gwyn Jones, Vice President, NFU.

Over the past century agricultural science and new technologies have boosted production with enormous gains in yields and reductions in the price of food, but the benefits have been unevenly distributed and environmental degradation has resulted in many parts of the world.

Agricultural productivity globally has increased by almost a factor of 3 in the last 50 years, but one billion people still go to bed hungry every night and hunger has increased in several parts of the world, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, this increase in agricultural production has been accompanied by an increase in GHG emissions, loss of biodiversity, and land and water degradation. The underlying causes of hunger are more associated with poverty, institutional weaknesses and policy environments than an inability to produce enough food.

In the coming decades we need to double food availability in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner in order to alleviate hunger and under-nutrition. In addition, sustained growth in the agricultural sector is needed to reduce poverty, enhance rural livelihoods and stimulate economic growth in developing countries. While we could feed the world today with current technologies, further advances in agricultural science and technology are needed to meet future challenges. Agriculture can no longer be thought of as production alone, but the inescapable interconnectedness of agriculture’s different economic, social and environmental roles and functions must be explicitly recognised, i.e., agriculture is multifunctional. Without an appropriate enabling framework (i.e., rural development, access to markets, improved extension services, empowerment of women and trade reform), the potential of advances in agricultural science and technology will not be realised.

This increased food availability will have to be achieved at a time of less labor due to disease and rural to urban migration; less water due to increased competition from other sectors; less arable land due to competition from energy crops; high energy prices; distorted trade policies, e.g., OECD production subsidies; land policy conflicts; loss of biodiversity at the genetic, species and ecosystem level; increasing levels of air and water pollution; and human-induced climate change

Addressing the challenge of food security will require embedding economic, environmental and social sustainability into agricultural policies, practices and technologies; addressing today’s hunger problems with appropriate use of current technologies; advancing biotechnologies, which may be needed to address future demands for increased productivity and emerging issues such as climate change and new plant and animal pests, while recognizing that the risks and benefits must be fully understood; providing payments to the farmer for maintaining and enhancing ecosystem services; reforming international trade; and increasing public and private sector investment in research and development, extension services, and weather and market information.

Many of the technologies and practices we need to meet the challenge of sustainable agriculture already exist. For instance, we know how to manage soil and water more effectively to increase water retention and decrease erosion; we already have access to microbiological techniques to suppress diseases in soils and conventional biotechnology (plant breeding) can help us produce improved crop varieties. But climate change and new and emerging animal diseases are throwing up problems that we haven’t considered before and which will need advances in agricultural knowledge, science and technology to address.

Currently the most contentious issue in agricultural science is the use of recombinant DNA techniques to produce transgenic products. While GM technologies are being increasingly used in some parts of the world, in others there is strong public and political opposition.

Opening national agricultural markets to international competition can offer economic benefits, but can lead to long term negative effects on poverty alleviation, food security and the environment without basic national institutions and infrastructure being in place. Therefore, trade policy reform that provides a more equitable global trading system can help make small-scale farmers profitable and enhance the ability of developing countries to achieve food security while ensuring environmental sustainability. Developing countries would also benefit from the removal of barriers for products in which they have a competitive advantage by a reduction of escalating tariffs for processed commodities in both developed and developing countries.

The primary agricultural evidence challenge is to increase productivity in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. This will require addressing water deficit problems, e.g., through improved drought tolerant crops, irrigation technologies, etc; improving the temperature tolerance of crops; combating new or emerging agricultural pests or diseases; addressing soil fertility, salinzation of soils and improved nutrient cycling; reducing external and energy-intensive inputs; reducing GHG emissions while maintaining productivity; improving the nutritional quality of food; reducing waste and post harvest losses; and improving food safety.

Meeting the goal of affordable nutritious food for all, in an environmentally sustainable manner is achievable. The future is not pre-ordained, but is an our collective hands. While we can build upon our successes, we must also recognise that an extrapolation of business-as-usual will not suffice. Instead, we need to be bold enough to rethink agriculture. Most importantly, if we are to help today’s and tomorrow’s poor and disadvantaged, we need to acknowledge that the time to act is now.

Biodiversity, ecosystems and their services are critically important to human well-being and the economy. Changes in ecosystems and their services can have both positive and negative effects on human well-being.

Globally and nationally the emphasis has been placed on provisioning services to meet the increased need for food, fibre, water and energy, for increasing and wealthier populations. This has resulted in the unintended degradation of many ecosystems and their regulating (e.g., nutrient cycling), supporting (e.g., soil quality, and control of pest and diseases) and cultural services (e.g., recreation).

The direct drivers of ecosystem change include:

1. conversion of natural habitats;
2. exploitation of natural resources;
3. invasive species;
4. air and water pollution;
5. climate change.

These are driven by an increasing population, economic growth and trade liberalization, increased mechanization and use of agro-chemicals, socio-political and behavioural changes, all influencing the demand for goods and services and the way we manage our natural resources.

Unfortunately, the values of most ecosystem services are currently omitted from economic frameworks and decision-making. Failure to include non-market values in decision-making results in a less than optimum resource allocation.

Addressing the loss of biodiversity will require getting the economics right by making sure the value of all ecosystem services, not just those bought and sold in the market, are taken into account when making decisions; removing subsidies to agriculture, fisheries, and energy; making payments to landowners in return for managing their lands in ways that protect and enhance ecosystem services; appropriate pricing policies for natural resources, e.g., water; applying fees, taxes, levees and tariffs to discourage activities that degrade biodiversity and ecosystem services; and establishing market mechanisms to reduce nutrient releases and carbon emissions in the most cost-effective way

Key scientific challenges include understanding the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services; assessing the response of habitats to the indirect and direct drivers of change; linking changes in habitat condition to ecosystem services and then to human well-being; assessing changes in ecosystem services to value (economic and social); assessing how to get the economics right, e.g., elimination of subsidies and payment for ecosystem services; assessing how to appropriate the true economic value (market and non-market) of an ecosystem services to the local land owner; and evaluating the policy levers for different decision-makers – what is endogenous to a decision-maker and what is exogenous.

The composition of the atmosphere and the Earth’s climate has changed, mostly due to human activities, and is projected to continue to change, globally and regionally, with warmer temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, higher sea levels and storm surges, retreating mountain glaciers, melting of the Greenland ice cap, reduced arctic sea ice, and more frequent extreme weather events, e.g., heat waves, floods and droughts.

These projected changes in the Earth’s climate are predicted to adversely affect food security; water quantity and quality; biodiversity and ecological systems and their services, which are essential to human well-being and the economy; human health through an increase in heat stress mortality and the incidence of vector- borne diseases (e.g., malaria and dengue); and infrastructure and human settlements due to flooding, coastal erosion and sea level rise.

Projected changes in climate during the 21st century will occur faster than in at least the past 10,000 years with predominantly adverse consequences for developing countries and poor people within them. For the 850 million people who go to bed hungry every night, and the 2 billion others exposed to insect-borne diseases and water scarcity, climate change threatens to bring more suffering in its wake. In this way, climate change may undermine long-term development and the ability of many poor people to escape poverty.

The long-term challenge is to simultaneously stabilise the magnitude and rate of human-induced climate change, by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from all sectors, including agriculture, and to reduce the vulnerability of socio-economic sectors, ecological systems and human health to climate variability and change by integrating climate concerns into sectoral and national economic planning. This must happen in a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.

Adaptation to climate change is essential in-so-far-as the Earth’s climate is already changing and future change is inevitable. The immediate challenge is to decrease the vulnerability of socio-economic sectors and ecosystems to current climate variability. However, it must be recognized that there are physical, technological, financial, behavioural and institutional limits to adaptation.

A significant reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases will require an evolution in today’s technologies and policies, and must be achieved while improving access to affordable energy in developing countries, which is critical for poverty alleviation and economic growth. Reduced emissions of greenhouse gases will require energy sector reform, appropriate pricing policies, and a technological evolution in both the production and use of energy. However, technological options for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the long term already exist and large reductions can be attained using a portfolio of options and costs are likely to be lower than previously considered.

Biofuels can offer potential benefits over the rising costs of fossil fuels, enhance energy security, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the production of first generation biofuels, which are predominantly produced from agricultural crops, can raise food prices and reduce our ability to alleviate hunger. There is also considerable debate over the environmental impact of biofuels, including their greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on biodiversity. Increased public and private investments are needed for next-generation biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol and biomass to liquids technologies, so that cheaper and more abundant feedstocks can be converted into biofuels, potentially reducing the demand for agricultural land.

Most industrialised countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol which mandates industrialised countries to reduce their emissions on an average by 5.2% by 2012 relative to emissions in 1990; individual industrialised country targets vary. There are no emissions targets for developing countries. Given that many industrialised countries will not meet their reduction targets with domestic actions alone, this provides significant opportunities for carbon trading, which are likely to provide sustainable development benefits for many developing countries. The challenge now is to negotiate a long-term global equitable regulatory framework with intermediate targets that can limit greenhouse emissions at a level that limits the increase in global mean surface temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. However, the 2°C target is unlikely to be met and the world should be prepared to adapt to a 3-4°C increase.

Key scientific challenges include improving small spatial scale probabalistic projections of climate change, with a focus on extreme events and potential non-linear events; understanding and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural and forestry sectors; understanding the impact, including non-linear responses and economic costs, of climate change on socio-economic sectors, e.g., agriculture and water resources, ecosystems and their services, and human health; assessing the opportunities, barriers, economic costs, environmental and social implications of transitioning to a low-carbon economy and adapting to climate change; and understanding the climatic and environmental implications of geo-engineering techniques.

In conclusion, climate change, along with the loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems, threatens food, water and energy security. While there are many uncertainties in our knowledge, we know enough to manage these systems more sustainably.

Last month the Foresight Project on Global Food and Farming Futures, that I had the pleasure of commissioning, published its findings of a two-year study examining how to feed 9 billion people healthily and equitably by 2050.

The project report highlights how the global food system is failing in two ways. First, it’s unsustainable and using resources much faster than they are being replenished. Much agricultural land use has degraded land and agriculture currently consumes 70% of total global water withdrawals from rivers and aquifers, many of which are overexploited.

Second, the food system is failing to end hunger – there are still nearly a billion hungry people and another one billion people suffering from ‘hidden hunger’. In the last few years progress on hunger has stalled and there is now little chance we can meet the Millennium Development Goals hunger targets.

The report points out that this is a unique time in history. For the first time we can now foresee a possible end to population growth meaning that decisions made now and over the next few decades will disproportionately influence the future. The Foresight report argues that urgent action is needed now to provide food security for future generations and that addressing climate change and achieving sustainability in the global food system need to be recognised as dual imperatives.

Climate change will affect how and where we grow food

The global food system will be strongly affected by a changing climate with rising global temperatures, changing patterns of precipitation and an increase in extreme weather events. These changing conditions will affect crop growth and livestock performance, the availability of water, as well as capture fisheries and aquaculture productivity in all regions. All of these factors could increase volatility in food production and prices.

Linking policy on climate and food

Policies for addressing climate change will also have a significant effect on the global food system. Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be reduced by at least 50–60% by 2050 compared to current levels to avoid major climate change. Ambitious goals such as these cannot be achieved without involving the food system. The challenge of feeding a larger global population and changing food preferences must be met while delivering a steep reduction in GHG emissions. Agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, responsible for around 10–12% of emissions – this figure grows to 30% if fuel, fertiliser, land use change are included. The report argues that global food system has to be redesigned to bring sustainability centre stage, and that we can be smarter about the way we grow food and use land to help reduce GHG emissions and address climate change.

Focus on sustainability

Without significant deforestation (unacceptable for environmental and climate concerns) there is relatively little new land for agriculture and yet more food needs to be produced sustainably. This implies the need for sustainable intensification; the pursuit of the dual goals of higher yields with fewer negative consequences for the environment. As part of the project, case studies were commissioned from existing projects from 20 countries in Africa where sustainable intensification had been developed, promoted or practiced during the last ten years. The case studies show how agriculture can produce more food and yet do this in ways that improve the environment and rural livelihoods by using techniques including crop improvements; agroforestry, where trees and shrubs are combined with crops or livestock; and soil conservation. On average, crop yields more than doubled, and some 10.4 million farmers and their families benefitted from improvements in farm productivity on nearly 13 million hectares (more than half the size of the UK). The challenge now is to find ways to scale up these processes so that eventually hundreds of millions of people benefit. The project also identified the importance of applying existing knowledge and technology which is shown to increase average yields two- to threefold in many parts of Africa, and twofold in the Russian Federation. Similarly, global productivity in aquaculture could, with limited changes to inputs, be raised by around 40%.

Knowledge is power

There will need to be investment in new science and research to raise the limits of sustainable production and address new threats. No one technology or type of research will be a silver bullet for addressing sustainable production but all can contribute something. There is a need to increase our understanding of crops and animals to improve yields while still increasing efficiencies of water and nutrient use. Also, we will need to prioritise research on climate change adaptation and mitigation in the food system, for example, producing crops that are drought and flood resistant. A paper published in Science last month on the project highlights the need for agricultural, economic and climate modellers to compare and share their data more systematically to meet the need of policy makers. The Foresight report calls for a global open-source database which pulls together agricultural, land-use, economic and environmental data available throughout the world.

Food security needs to rise up the political agenda

Political will is needed for food and climate policy to be better integrated to address future challenges. There are encouraging signs that this is already happening with more countries committing to public investment in agriculture and new initiatives, including the World Bank’s proposal to link agriculture-related investments with the transition to climate-smart growth. While I welcome such endeavours, I do think more can be done now in terms of making the food chain more efficient. The Foresight report makes clear that waste in all areas of the food system must be minimised – as much as 30% of all food grown worldwide may be lost or wasted before and after it reaches the consumer. The report calculates that an amount of food equivalent to about a quarter of today’s annual production could potentially be saved by 2050 if the current level of global food waste is halved. In middle to low income countries, where infrastructure for storage and supply is often inadequate, there needs to be better deployment of existing knowledge and technology in storage and transport infrastructure and investment in new, appropriate technology to reduce post-harvest waste.

There are not many straightforward answers, reducing waste is one of them, but it will not be easy.

Further reading

• Global Food and Farming Futures: full project details;
• Global Food and Farming Futures reports and publications: full final report, executive summary, supporting evidence and other documents all available to download.

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• Rio+20: engaging young people to fight climate change

Thursday 24 February 2011, 5pm GMT

A free webinar from Earthscan – presented by Jerome Ravetz, originator of post-normal science, and Valerie Brown, editor of Tackling Wicked Problems – will discuss the kinds of knowledge we need to tackle our ecological and social crises.

• Hear about the limits of traditional science in solving ‘wicked’ socio-environmental issues;
• Discover different ways of doing science: ‘Post-Normal ’ and ‘Transition’ Science;
• Take part in a live online Q&A  with experts on the science of change.

Register now for this free webinar – Thursday 24 February 2011, 17:00 (UK time – GMT), 12:00 (New York – EST), 9:00 (San Francisco – PST)

Can’t make the date? If you register for the event, you will be sent the archived version the following day.

The webinar is aimed at scientists tackling wicked problems posed by global social and environmental change; government and non-government agencies who are hoping a new science can help them with their transitions to a sustainable state; and anyone concerned with the wicked problems we are facing, with an interest in the kinds of knowledge we are relying on to solve them.

More about the Earthcast

The presenters argue that the normal conduct of science – with its rules of trying to reduce complexity and eliminate uncertainty – has not only failed to resolve ‘wicked’ problems such as climate change and industrial pollution, it has had a hand in causing them. This Earthcast will consider changes in the way we do science that could help us resolve ‘wicked’ problems – so-called because they defy traditional problem-solving methods.  

• Jerome Ravetz will explain how he developed Post-Normal Science, which allows for uncertainty and imagination. This is appropriate for policy issues where facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent.
• Valerie Brown will present her work on Transition Science.  Through her work with over 300 communities, she has identified ingredients needed to bring about social change: key individuals, members of the affected community, specialised advisors, influential organizations and a holistic focus. Valerie will propose that collective knowledge, the sum of these multiple knowledges, is emerging as the basis for a Transition Science.

About the speakers

Jerome Ravetz is Associate Fellow, the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, Said Business School, Oxford University.  You can find his papers at www.jerryravetz.co.uk; www.nusap.net and www.postnormaltimes.net/blog. He is the author of A No-Nonsense Guide to Science (New Internationalist: 2006)

Valerie A. Brown is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Western Sydney, and Director, Local Sustainability Project, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University.  Her books include Social Learning in Environmental Management (Earthscan:2006); and Tackling Wicked Problems: Through the Transdisciplinary Imagination (Earthscan: 2010)

For more information, and to view all previous Earthcasts, visit www.earthcasts.co.uk

"Using sound science responsibly" is one of the Government’s guiding principles for sustainable development. Policy must be "developed and implemented on the basis of strong scientific evidence, whilst taking into account scientific uncertainty (through the precautionary principle) as well as public attitudes and values."

Defra’s new Evidence Investment Strategy (EIS) provides an agenda to prioritise and manage its investment in evidence, ensuring access to the best evidence when developing policies.

The strategy highlights the need to focus efforts on three major issues facing Defra and the UK government:

• Climate change
• Protecting ecosystems
• Developing a sustainable food supply

The importance of evidence

Launching the strategy, Professor Bob Watson, Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser, asserted the need for an evidential basis for policy:

“It is absolutely essential that all the policies that we formulate are based on sound evidence. We now understand more about the challenges facing the earth’s climate, ecosystem services and the supply of sustainable and healthy food. There has never been a time when there was a greater need for good quality evidence to contribute to policy making and sound decisions.”

“Defra recognises this and invests heavily in evidence, spending approximately £240m to evidence-related activities, including research, surveillance and scientific specialists in 2009/10.”

Interlinked issues

In a video address to accompany the launch of the strategy, Watson stressed the linkages between the highlighted issues and the need for joined-up responses:

“The issue of food security, the issue of climate change and the issue of sustainable use of our ecological systems are all intertwined. Climate change affects agriculture, the way we produce food affects the climate system, the way we manage our ecological systems, our water, our soils also affects both the climate system and the food system. So what we have to recognise is that we have one intertwined system.”

“This means we have to focus our funding priorities on these various issues which means that within Defra we need a joined‐up Defra. Those who are working on food security need to work with those on climate change, need to work with those who are looking at our natural environment.”

The strategy also contains recommendations on the importance of working with others, both internally and through partnerships with the Research Councils and other government departments aimed at improving evidence use.