GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE:

REGIONAL CHALLENGES 

An ESSP Global Environmental Change Open Science Conference

Background 

The first Global Change Open Science Conference in Amsterdam in July 2001 brought together 1400 scientists and other interested parties from 105 countries to describe, discuss and debate the latest scientific understanding of natural and human-driven changes to our planet.  They examined the effects of these changes on our societies and our lives, and explored what the future might hold.  A proceedings volume entitled “Challenges of a Changing Earth” has been published by Springer.

Participants at the Conference signed “The Amsterdam Declaration on Global Change” which, amongst other things, stated that “A new system of global environmental science is required.”  It called for strengthening of current cooperation amongst the global environmental change research programmes and for greater integration across disciplines, environment and development issues and the natural and social sciences.  It also called for greater collaboration across national boundaries and for intensified efforts to enable the full involvement of scientists from developing countries.

In response to the Declaration, the four international global environmental change research Programmes: DIVERSITAS – an international programme of biodiversity science; the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP); the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP); and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) joined together to form the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) devoted to the study of the integrated Earth System.

Since its inception the ESSP has established Joint Projects on carbon, food, and water, as major interdisciplinary studies to explore the relationship between global environmental change and sustainable development.   Planning for a fourth Joint Project on health is well underway. These projects and the ongoing core Programmes take an Earth System Science approach that brings together researchers from diverse fields and from across the globe, to undertake an integrated study of the Earth system, its structure and functioning, the changes occurring to the system and the implications of those changes for global sustainability. In addition, the ESSP has initiated the first of a series of integrated regional studies, in Monsoon Asia.  The ESSP has decided that, five years after the first Global Change Open Science Conference, it is now time to once again bring together the worldwide global environmental change research community to assess progress since the Amsterdam meeting and to lay plans for the future.

Conference Objectives 

• To present the results of the last five years of global environmental change research, emphasising the Earth System Science approach, in particular as it relates to carbon, food, health and water.
• To highlight the rich variety of research conducted by the global environmental change community, particularly the Core Projects of the four international GEC Programmes, and how that research contributes to and supports the objectives of the ESSP.
• . To point the way for the next decade of Earth System Science

Conference themes 

• Earth System Science Approach: New advances in studies of the physical, biogeochemical, biodiversity, and human dimensions aspects of global environmental change.
• Science for Sustainability:  Global environmental change research relating to carbon, food, human health, and water; as reflected in the ESSP Joint Projects.
• Integrated Regional Studies: The dynamics, impacts and consequences of the interactions between natural and social systems at regional scales, including extreme events, and how they connect with global-scale phenomena.
• Global Change in Monsoon Asia: Global environmental change research in monsoon Asia.

Audience and outreach 

The Conference will be aimed both at scientists and others interested in the Earth System Science approach to global environmental change research. This will also include members of the broader global environmental change science and development communities, including policy makers, practitioners, journalists and members of the private sector. 

Immediately prior to the main Conference, the 2^nd International Young Scientists (YSC) Global Change Conference (7-8 November 2006) organised by the ESSP SysTem for Analysis Research and Training (START) will provide an opportunity for selected young scientists to present and discuss their work and to participate in the ESSP Open Science Conference.  A special effort will be made to attract and support scientists from developing countries and post-doctoral researchers and graduate students to participate in the OSC.  The OSC International Organizing Committee and START will work together to ensure that capacity building is an important element of both events.

This ESSP Open Science Conference will be different from the OSC of the GEC Programmes in that it will focus on the integrative and multidisciplinary aspects of the whole ESSP, especially the ESSP joint projects.  There will be sessions on the integrative modelling aspects of the coupled climate system in recognition of over 25 years of WCRP research.

Sessions

The Conference programme will emphasise plenary sessions in order to meet the Conference objective of bringing together practitioners from many different disciplines to focus on the integrated Earth System approach to global environmental change research. A Call for Session Proposals will be issued in October and a Call for Papers will be issued in February.  The exact nature of the programme will be determined by the IOC based on the response to the Call for Sessions.  However, it is expected that sessions topics will include: integrated regional studies with emphasis on Monsoon Asia; integrative modelling of the water, carbon and other cycles; role of science in informing public policy development; role of science in development, including food security, health and water management; and characteristics, impacts and responses to extreme events.

Outcomes 

The outcomes of the Conference will be:

• Further development of cohesiveness within and planning of the ESSP, with involvement of a broad community, to set future directions of the ESSP.
• Recommendations for Programme directions and involvement of governments and others.
• Input into the future evolution of major initiatives including:
  • the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) through identification of observational priorities
  • the International Conventions on Biological Diversity, Climate Change, Desertification and others and national and international policies on these topics
  • the increased role of GEC science in international development
• Higher visibility for the ESSP, across a broad community. 

Timeline 

• For the calendar, please click here