Download - 21 issues for 21st century final
21 ISSUES FOR 21st CENTURY
Ipsita Nandi
M.Phil
IESD
Flow of Content
UNEP
UNEP Foresight process
Process for development of issues
what is emerging issues ?
Issues titles
What are Cross Cutting Issues?
Cross cutting issues in detail
Recap
UNEP?
UNEP was established in 1972 with the mandate:
“To keep under review the world environmental situation in order to
ensure that emerging environmental problems of wide international
significance receive appropriate and adequate consideration by
governments.”
- UN General Assembly 1972
WHAT IS THE UNEP FORESIGHT PROCESS?
PANEL
IDENTIFY AND
RANK EMERGING
ISSUES
Chief Scientists’
Office & UNEP’s
Division of Early
Warning & Assessment
22 Experts from broad
discipline and fields.
PROCESS FOR DEVELOPMENT
1. Canvass of UNEP’S community
68 issues
2. Foresight Panel meetings held
debated 95 issues
Result 21 issues selected
EMERGING ISSUES
Critical to the global environment
Related to environment
Large spatial scale
Priority in UNEP’S Program over next 3 yrs
Recognized as very important by the scientific community,
but not yet received adequate attention from the policy
community
Table 1: Outline of 21 Issues
ISSUE TITLE RANK
Aligning Governance to the Challenges of Global Sustainability 1
Transforming Human Capabilities for the 21st Century 2
Food Safety and Food Security for 9 Billion People 3
Broken Bridges: Reconnecting Science and Policy 4
Catalyzing Rapid and Transformative Changes in Human Behavior towards
the Environment.
5
New Insights on Water-Land Interactions: Shift in the Management
Paradigm?
6
Integrating Biodiversity Across the Environmental and Economic Agendas 7
Accelerating the Implementation of Environmentally-Friendly Renewable
Energy Systems
7
Managing the Unintended Consequences of climate change mitigation. 7
Minimizing Risks of Novel Technologies and Chemicals 10
Boosting Urban Sustainability and Resilience 11
Source: UNEP, 2012
Contd..
The New Rush for Land 12
Potential Collapse of Oceanic Systems Requires Integrated Ocean
Governance
13
Solving the Impending Scarcity of Strategic Minerals and Avoiding Electronic
Waste
14
Shortcutting the Degradation of Inland Waters in Developing Countries 15
Acting on the Signal of Climate Change in the Changing Frequency of
Extreme Events
16
The Environmental Consequences of Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors 17
New Concepts for Coping with Creeping Changes and Imminent Thresholds 18
Coastal Ecosystems: Addressing Increasing Pressures with Adaptive
Governance
19
Coping with Migration Caused by New Aspects of Environmental Change 20
Managing the Impacts of Glacier Retreat 21
Source: UNEP, 2012
ISSUES… A BRIEF OUTLOOK
COVERS THE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL THEMES
Food and Land
Freshwater and Marine Biodiversity
Climate Change
Energy
Waste and Technology
ALSO, INCLUDE CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
Environmental Governance
Human behavioral change
Bridging Science and Policy
CROSS CUTTING ISSUES
.
Issues that affect all area of concern within their context.
Aligning Government to the challenges of Global
Sustainability (ranked #1)
WHY
Piecemeal approach
Agreements lacks….
• Overall Integration
• Effective Coordination
• Effective foresight
Decision making ….
• Too little representative
• Little accountability
INEFFECTIVE
Source: { Young et.al 2008)Newell and Bulkeley (2010)}
How to solve it
Public debate
Qualified majority vote
Constitutional framework for sustainable development
Implementation of sustainability policies in smaller and
poorer countries
Stronger involvement of civil society
Why
Shortage of Skilled labor
Unsuitable pedagogic methods till date
Source: Beddoe et.al 2009
How to solve it
Train the workers
Change educational methods
Train the managers
Encourage research to bridge the gap
Broken Bridges: Reconnecting Science and
Policy (Ranked #4)
WHY
Failed Communication
Inaccessibility Of Scientific Literature
Less Meetings
Lack of Interest
Source: Campbell et.al 2007Choi et.al 2005
How to solve it
Science-society-policy
Organize more meetings
Integrated assessment method
Environmental scenario analysis
Increase access to scientific literature
Recap
3 cross cutting issues….
Aligning Governance to the Challenges of Global Sustainability
(Ranked#1)
Transforming Human Capabilities for the 21st
century: Meeting global environmental challenges and moving
towards a Green Economy (Ranked #2)
Broken Bridges: Reconnecting Science and Policy (Ranked #4)
There are problems, there are solution
need is to act…
Thank you….