The Cape Town Declaration on Science for Environmental Sustainability

 

A statement of commitment from the 4th IGBP Science Conference held at the Cape Town International Convention Center, 5th to 9th May 2008

 

The UN Millennium Development Goals are an inspiring and formidable challenge for society: within the next decade we must aim to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat deadly diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and construct a global partnership for development. At the same time, society is faced with other challenges such as global climate change, air pollution, land use change, decreases in global biodiversity, food resources and how all of these issues tie into global security. We do not have the luxury of solving these problems one at a time; they need to be resolved together. Solving these problems requires knowledge of how the coupled human-environmental Earth system works that is sufficiently broad and deep to allow us to accurately assess the causes of past and current changes and predict future ones.

 

In this regard, the need for process-level understanding of how the human-environmental system works has not diminished, but in fact underpins the answers to questions of sustainable development. We still must concentrate on first class science involving the interactions and feedbacks between biological, chemical and physical processes and human systems. However, scientists, resource managers, private enterprise and policy makers require a common understanding in order for their interactions to be mutually beneficial.

 

The global environmental changes brought on by human activities have already and will continue to have significant, planetary-scale consequences. The thousands of concerned scientists who make up the Earth System Science Partnership* emphasize the seriousness of the impending global environmental crisis, and the urgency of collective action to ameliorate it.

• There is a real risk that the climate of the earth will, as a result of human influences on natural processes, exceed the limits for human security and wellbeing in many parts of the world. A large proportion of the world’s species and ecosystems are already threatened by habitat loss, over-harvesting, pollution and climate change. The inertia of the earth system, including society, requires immediate and concerted actions to build resilience and adaptive capacity to the changes we anticipate.
• While there is a solid body of well-founded science available to diagnose the causes of global environmental trends, their likely consequences, and potential solutions, there still remains much to be done. Never before has there been such a need for well-integrated science of, and action for, the environment.
• On balance, the development of modern societies has had major benefits for humans, but the benefits are unequally spread within and among societies, and many of the costs are being passed on to future generations. Many of the benefits have come at a cost to the environment that is poorly recognised in the economic frameworks that guide development decisions. Increasingly realistic estimates of the value of the services that ecosystems deliver, and recognition that these services have no substitutes, argues for more robust and sustainable development pathways to be identified and pursued.

Attainment of global sustainability in an interconnected world is only possible through coordinated, collective and cooperative efforts by all peoples. The path to sustainability will be different for different parts of the earth, as a result of their history and environmental circumstances. The developing world has the opportunity to attain wellbeing of individual citizens without compromising the integrity of their natural environments. Likewise others, such as the developed world, must find effective ways to contribute to global sustainability. Science has a fundamental role in helping to realize these opportunities.

 

The Amsterdam Declaration from 2001 pointed the way for the science community in terms of describing a pathway for framing research on global environmental change. There was a recognition that the Earth System did not behave in a way that was easily understood by “conventional” scientific approaches. From the Declaration: “A new system of global environmental science is required.” The Declaration went further to identify a common goal for the four global environmental change research programmes: “The common goal must be to develop the essential knowledge base needed to respond effectively and quickly to the great challenge of global change.” The international research community has responded to this challenge, in part through the evolution of the Earth System Science Partnership.

 

There is another citation from the Amsterdam Declaration that is very important, but on which not as much progress has been made: “An ethical framework for global stewardship and strategies for Earth System management are urgently needed.” Coupled with a new system of global environmental change science, this ethical framework will be the basis for true global sustainable development.

 

The Fourth IGBP Congress “Sustainable Livelihoods in a Changing Earth System” presents us with an opportunity to reaffirm the goals set out in Amsterdam, and to again make a commitment to pursuing science to truly develop and impart the knowledge necessary to respond to global environmental change.

 

The participants of this Congress commit to work together to pursue science that will aid us in achieving sustainable development of our common, global resources.  We commit

 

• To build upon the successes we have had of constructing a scientific infrastructure that brings together scientists from many nations, disciplines and backgrounds, from across the natural and social sciences;
•  That we use this human and intellectual capital to build the next level of scientific infrastructure that is necessary to understand and predict the behavior of coupled human-environmental systems;
• That the framework for this scientific infrastructure be built around the ideas of sustainability and ethical global stewardship of the Earth System;
•  That we challenge ourselves with using the understanding that we develop about these coupled systems as the scientific basis for assessments and communication of the options risks, vulnerabilities and possibilities for future sustainable development of our planet.

Only together can we achieve these goals, and by working together each of us can contribute to making a positive impact on global sustainable development.