Seite - 8 - in options, Band summer 2021

OVID-19 is a warning: We need to step back from business-as-usual and find new ways to build a future that allows all of humanity to thrive in a resilient, sustainable, and equitable world. The IIASA-ISC Consultative Science Platform “Bouncing Forward Sustainably: Pathways to a post-COVID world”, a global hub for consultation, deliberation, and collaboration among scientists, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, has produced a series of reports with key messages and recommendations for policy- and decision makers, that have the potential to enable the needed systemic transformations and structural changes. The reports provide recommendations around four interconnected themes: Governance for Sustainability, Strengthening Science Systems, Resilient Food Systems, and Rethinking Energy Solutions. Key recommendations from all four themes are presented in a Synthesis Report. In terms of governance for sustainability, the authors point out that a fragmented approach to governance has hampered responses to the crisis. The initiative’s recommendations include that the ongoing reform process should ensure that separate UN agencies work in a coordinated way, while governments should be empowered to take a systems view. A global dialogue could engage policymakers, civil society, the private sector, and the scientific community to improve understanding of compound and systemic risks; while a science-based tracking mechanism could assess how recovery packages align with the Sustainable Development Goals. The report on science systems contains a number of recommendations grouped under five interrelated transformative changes aimed at ensuring a more effective response of the science system to future global crises. These changes address the need to strengthen transdisciplinary research on critical risks; enhance the diffusion of knowledge within the science system; increase the capacity of the science system to respond rapidly with high-quality research; improve the science-policy interface; and enhance public understanding and trust in science. With regard to future energy solutions, the authors urge that we need to look beyond production and focus on addressing demand, for example, by re-purposing urban spaces to provide for human wellbeing while reducing environmental footprints. This can build on innovations adopted during the COVID crisis. The pandemic also underlines the entanglement of human and natural systems, especially in the field of food and nutrition. In this regard, there is an urgent need to balance today’s focus on efficiency of supply with a new emphasis on resilience and equity, to ensure that the future food system can deliver universal security and empower the most vulnerable groups. “COVID-19 could become a catalyst for reform. Governments, businesses, and citizens have been willing to respond constructively to the crisis and take radical action. This is cause for optimism that we can undertake the transformative changes we need for a safe, just, and healthy planet,” concludes IIASA Deputy Director General for Science, Leena Srivastava. A vision for a just and resilient post-pandemic world Luis Gomez Echeverri: gomez@iiasa.ac.at Leena Srivastava: srivastava@iiasa.ac.at Further info: covid19.iiasa.ac.at/isc/outcome IIASA and the International Science Council (ISC) have drawn on the combined strengths and expertise of the two organizations to address emerging issues and provide science-based insights on how to rebuild a post-pandemic world that is more resilient, sustainable, and just. Transformations within reach: Pathways to a sustainable and resilient world SYNTHESIS REPORT Transformations within reach: Pathways to a sustainable and resilient world ENHANCING GOVERNANCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY Transformations within reach: Pathways to a sustainable and resilient world RETHINKING ENERGY SOLUTIONS Transformations within reach: Pathways to a sustainable and resilient world STRENGTHENING SCIENCE SYSTEMS Transformations within reach: Pathways to a sustainable and resilient world RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEMS 8 Options www.iiasa.ac.atSummer 2021 Science into policy By Ansa Heyl