Information meeting with members of the Executive Board, on Climate Change and Sustainable Development, took place on Tuesday 9 December 2014 in Room X. This meeting was organized within the framework of the series of events held pursuant to the Executive Board’s Decision on “UNESCO at 70 and Future Prospects” (194 EX/Decision 31).

 
The guest speakers were the following two members of the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB):

Mohamed Sameh Amr, Chairman of the Executive Board of UNESCO

Opening the discussion, noted that today’s meeting was timely, as it took place while the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP20) was underway in Lima, Peru. He reminded that COP 21 Summit will be hosted by France, in one year’s time. Recalling the wisdom of the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) he quoted the following:  “Warming of the climate system [… and] observed changes are unprecedented […]. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen”. It is “extremely likely” that these changes are due to greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity. He stated that if we stay on a path of rapid climate change, we will not reach our shared goal and responsibility, namely sustainable development.  He said that UNESCO, with its unique mix of competencies – not only in the sciences, but also in education, culture, communication and information – was uniquely well placed to tackle climate change and sustainable development, recalling that its programmes cover fields like science policy and public awareness, dealing with issues from the ocean to renewable energy calling on traditional and indigenous knowledge, as well as education to encourage sustainable living and lifestyles.

 

Mr. Hans d’Orville, Assistant Director-General for Strategic Planning

Mr d’Orville spoke on behalf of the Director-General, Ms Irina Bokova. He recalled the establishment of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) by Ban Ki-Moon in October 2013 and explained that it is composed of 26 eminent scientists from all regions and a wide range of disciplines. The purpose of the SAB is to advise the Secretary-General and leaders of UN Organizations on matters of science, technology and innovation for sustainable development. The SAB is the first such body created by the Secretary-General to influence and shape action by the international community to advance sustainable development and eradicate poverty. UNESCO hosts the SAB Secretariat. The Scientific Advisory Board promotes the importance of science, technology and innovation for the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, its pivotal role as game-changer and enabler of green growth, employment creation and better life conditions worldwide. A summary of the inaugural meeting of the SAB was held in Berlin, Germany on 30 and 31 January 2014.  A Summary Report of the first meeting was recently published. Mr d’Orville mentioned that the two meetings organized on “Climate Change and Sustainable Development” and “Science for Sustainable Development” were timely and welcomed that they are held on the eve of the second meeting of the SAB. He said that the participation of immanent members of the SAB during these two meetings could help sharpen opinions on both topics. Mr. D'Orville emphasized the need to strengthen trust between scientists and policy-makers and improve communication on the importance of the science/policy nexus for sustainable development.
 

Carlos Nobre (Brazil), Senior Climate Scientist, National Secretary for R&D Policies

Highlighted the vital importance of the need to preserve the Amazon Forest for all of humanity, asking if the Anthropocene period, during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment both globally and locally will pose a risk to the Amazon ecosystem.  While noting that the forest provides important economic and ecological services, including the maintenance of global carbon cycles and climate stabilization, he said that the reality of agricultural expansion in the amazon is one of fire and forest destruction.  He noted that over a period of one century extreme climate situations can be observed, including record-breaking droughts and floods, asking whether this is an expected manifestation of natural climate variability or could it be an early sign of climate change due to global warming? He concluded that there were both anthropogenic and natural drivers of environmental change in the Amazon, noting that there was bi-stability within two stable states: forest and forest-Savanah.  He stated that even if tropical countries cut deforestation to zero, unchecked global warming will still wreak havoc on the Amazon forest.  On the positive side, he did observe that policies to reduce Amazon deforestation were working and that deforestation of the Amazon has been slowed greatly. He also noted that certain ancestral agricultural crops could prove to be both economically and environmentally beneficial while also respecting the Forest. Finally he asked what kind of Amazon do we want for the future.  Obviously one where sustainability wins out over fragmentation, where natural reproduction evolves in synergy with the Savanah. He called for a new economic sustainability paradigm for tropical forests, one in which science and technology offer solutions for the emergence of innovative local bio industries. Finally, Mr. Nobre noted that scientists need to change the way they produce scientific data, and that such data ought to be the result of joint work, between both scientists and policy-makers.

 

Susan Avery (United States of America), President and Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Outlined the crucial importance of our Ocean – which needs to be preserved and protected, if we are to guarantee the survival of our cherished Earth. She made a correlation between the atmosphere and the Ocean, saying that each affects the other in a reciprocal way, calling this reciprocity ‘the dance of two blue systems’. She said that the fundamental reason that the atmosphere matters to the ocean, and the ocean to the atmosphere, is that they exchange heat, moisture, momentum, nutrients, and biogeochemical properties. However, she noted that humans are changing the characteristics of the dancers of the blue planet, bringing on different choreography. She observed that the planet is warming. This warming is affecting the dynamics of heat distribution in the atmosphere, accelerating sea ice loss and changing the coupling (dance)  between the atmosphere, the ocean, the land and ice, resulting in Sea level rise; on the other hand the increasing concentration of CO2 is  changing the chemistry of seawater and decreasing ocean pH. She concluded by asking some fundamental questions: How do we manage the growing human footprint in the ocean? What do we protect and why? How do we forecast ecosystem behavior? How do we feed a growing population? How do we meet growing energy demands? How do we manage water supplies in a changing water cycle? How do we  develop the blue economy in co-existence with a healthy ocean? How do we utilize new technologies and observing strategies to provide the data for science, the blue economy, and decision-making?  

 

Question and Answer Session:

Following the panelist’s interventions, and prior to the Question and Answer session, the Permanent Delegate of France wanted to remind the participants and that France will organize four major events in 2015 in the field of climate change, namely: the Business Summit in May 2015, the Conference on Oceans, organized in cooperation with the Permanent Delegation of Monaco in June 2015, a meeting of the scientific community in July 2015 and the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum of the 38th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, devoted to the fight against climate change, to be held in November 2015.


Delegates then undertook a discussion along the following themes:

The role of indigenous peoples in the conservation of nature (Ecuador, Gabon)

The example was mentioned of the use of certain medicinal plants, used ancestrally in Gabon, the Ambassador lamented the loss of indigenous knowledge communities.

Ms. Avery said mobilizing the knowledge and capacity of communities from the local to regional levels acts as a particularly crucial response in the fight against climate change, and this should be encouraged and replicated to the extent possible.


Results of previous Climate Change Conferences

The Delegate of Ecuador spoke to emphasize the need to integrate the results of the COP 20 into the post-2015 development agenda, and encouraged UNESCO to make sure that aspects relating to science were adequately reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Delegates of Chad and Pakistan asked questions pertaining to the potential concrete results of COP 21: "Considering the great number of meetings already organized, wouldn’t COP 21 simply be just be one more summit?"(Chad), "Is it realistic to think that the COP 21 will lead to concrete and positive outcomes?"(Pakistan)


The situation in countries suffering most from the effects of climate change:

The Delegate of the Philippines reflected on the natural disasters his country has suffered; including two sever typhoons that hit the coasts of the Philippines both this year and last. He lamented the fact that vulnerable countries like his are disproportionately exposed to the consequences of climate change, while they have been the least responsible for it.

Professor Nobre concurred with this remark and explained the proposal coming out of COP 20 meeting currently underway in Lima, Peru was that countries provide funding, which is commensurate with their responsibility.


The role of education for sustainable development:

The delegate of Italy said that education for sustainable development should be a priority for all governments.
Ms. Avery concurred and said that education should play a key role in this area, she mentioned how pleased she was in particular to see the passion with which her science students, who became aware of the direct and immediate relevance of their research.