Earth System Sustainability Initiative (ESSI): towards a new 10-year initiative

The Earth System Visioning process concluded in February with participants at the third and final meeting agreeing on key elements for a new initiative that will address the Grand Challenges for Earth System Research for Global Sustainability — delivering knowledge to enable societies to meet their sustainable development goals in the next decades.

The initiative will be a joint integrated research strategy that is expected to unify most of the existing global environmental change research structures (including Diversitas, IGBP, IHDP, ESSP and possibly some components of WCRP), and fully engage START.

The development of the initiative has entered a fast-moving phase that will see the current research structures transition to the unified framework. A Transition Team will be established to guide the development process in the  lead-up to the two-stage launch in 2012—at the Planet Under Pressure conference in March and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June.

Answers to a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the new 10-year Earth System Sustainability Initiative are available here.

New!! ESSI website is available here.

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A summary report of the 3^rd Visioning Meeting is now available

The meeting represented the third step of the Visioning process. The preceding steps had been: i) an extensive consultation, started in early 2009, that led to the identification of the Grand Challenges for Earth System Science for Global Sustainability, and ii) a meeting in June 2010 that considered the institutional framework required to address the Grand Challenges.  Step 2 had concluded that a new overarching structure was needed to promote integrated research.

Participants of the meeting started together the design of a new Joint Integrated Research Strategy for Global Sustainability, aiming at delivering the knowledge that will enable societies to meet their sustainable development needs in the next decades. They agreed on a new Initiative governed under one unified framework, and discussed its goals, its framework and its design criteria.

Read the full report here.

The Grand Challenges now available in final version; featured in a new Science Policy Forum article

The final, published version of the Grand Challenges document is now available. Also, in a Policy Forum article in the 12 November, 2010 issue of Science, the Visioning team discusses the Grand Challenges in Earth system science for global sustainability. The authors also call for an unprecedented global initiative to deliver the knowledge society needs to simultaneously reduce global environmental risks while also meeting economic development goals.

To read the ICSU Press Release, click here. To access the final version of the Grand Challenges as well as the Science article (no registration required), go to the Grand Challenges page and follow the links.

Moving into the Third Step: the New Initiative

After completing the first two steps, including extensive consultation with the scientific community and other stakeholders, the Visioning process is now moving into Step 3 – the creation of a new initiative that advances earth system research to deliver solutions to global sustainability challenges.

The next 18 months will pave the way for the creation of the new initiative, with the following actions envisaged:

• A SWOT analysis of the existing global change programs and related structures, relative to the criteria and aims for the new initiative.
• A third Visioning meeting to discuss and consult on the plans for the new initiative
• The creation of a prestigious  interim governing body to oversee development on the new initiative
• An intensive “design phase”

We envision the new initiative as a cutting-edge network with strong regional nodes, involving researchers of all disciplines, origins and ages, to address the five Grand Challenges. We will post additional information on Step 3, including the 3^rd Visioning meeting and the next public consultations, in the near future.

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Summary of the Step Two Visioning meetings now available

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to everyone who contributed to the Visioning Open Forum and Sponsors Meeting in Paris this past June. The summary of the Sponsors Meeting is now available. The Sponsors Meeting incorporated viewpoints from the Open Forum in two ways: 1. A majority of the Sponsors Meeting participants attended the Open Forum as well, and 2. The Visioning Task Team reported the results of the Open Forum at the beginning of the Sponsors Meeting.

Planning for Step Three of the Visioning Process – forming the structure that can effectively answer the Grand Challenges – will soon get underway. And Step Three meeting will likely take place in early 2011. We will post all further details on this website.