Global environmental change: France is in the consortium that will ensure the secretariat of "Future Earth"
Since 2011, the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Council for Social Sciences, the Belmont Forum – a consortium of the main environmental research funding agencies on the international stage, 3 United Nations organisations (UNESCO, UNEP, UNU) and the World Meteorological Organization have been engaged in a transition process that aims at bringing together the four ongoing research programmes in the area of global environmental changes (IGBP, IHDP, Diversitas and WCRP). It is the research work carried out in this context that provides the inputs for the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
A global research programme for sustainable development:
The Future Earth programme, launched during the United Nations Conference Rio+20, is the result of these reflections. The aim of this international initiative is to better coordinate research into sustainable development, to create synergies between the different scientific disciplines, and thereby conduct work that can help decision-making. It will bring together top-level scientists, policy-makers, business and industry and other stakeholders over the next ten years to address the issues represented by global environmental change.
On 2nd July the ICSU announced the composition of the Future Earth secretariat, divided into five hubs based in the USA (Boulder), France (Paris), Japan (Tokyo), Quebec (Montréal) and Sweden (Stockholm). The international consortium was selected from among the submitted twenty statements of intent, for its vision, its potential and its organisational and financial model. This secretariat gives Future Earth an innovative and unique executive structure covering three continents. Moreover, regional hubs will be created for Europe, Latin America, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa.
The Future Earth secretariat's remit will involve five major missions: coordination, communication and outreach, research support functions, reinforcing capacities (notably through the involvement of young researchers and scientists from the emerging and development countries), and syntheses and outlook.
An engine for sustainable development
ANR, Allenvi and the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research (MENESR) have worked together over the last few years to promote the position of France within Future Earth. The French presence will enable national research to play a significant role in the development of solutions to the major environmental challenges and to create synergies between the stakeholders.
"This is an extraordinary example of collective construction on the part of the French research stakeholders, points out Pascale Briand, Director General of ANR. For ANR - as the French national agency responsible for project-based funding - our participation in the Future Earth secretariat proves that our positioning efforts are pertinent. I am very pleased with this important step forward, which will give greater visibility to the research funding policy."
Reminder: ANR has co-chaired the Belmont Forum for the last two years.
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