Leaders of the global
science community have issued joint statements to world leaders meeting
at the G8 summit later this month in the US.
National science academies from 15 countries have called on
the leading industrialised economies to pay greater heed to science and
technology.
The academies include those from the US, China, India and the UK.
The organisations agreed three statements on tackling Earth's most pressing problems.
According to Dr Michael Clegg of the US National Academy of
Sciences: "In the long term, the pressing concerns are managing the
environment in a way that assures that future generations have a quality
of life that's at least as equivalent to the quality of life we enjoy
today."
As the host G8 nation, the US national academy has taken the
lead this year, working with counterparts to draw up a co-ordinated
message for the summit.
For the past seven years, science academies representing
countries that are attending the summit have issued statements to inform
delegates of vital science and technology matters.
This year, they are targeting leaders attending not just the
G8 summit but also the G20, the Rio+20 environmental summit, and other
important events.
'Influential' message
In past G8 summits, the views of the collective academies have
been influential. World leaders including Angela Merkel and Nicolas
Sarkozy have previously met with representatives of the global science
community and the text from their statements has ended up in the final
summit communiques.
"I think most governments pay attention to science," says Dr Clegg
"The fact we have a consensus of a great diversity of
countries is an indication of the importance of priorities that we as
leaders of the global science community place on these issues".
The
three so-called "G-Science" statements say that priority should be
given to finding ways of finding a coherent way of simultaneously
meeting water and energy needs, building resilience to natural disasters
and developing better ways of measuring greenhouse gas emissions in
order to see if individual countries are meeting their international
obligations to reduce emissions.
The first G-Science statement called on leaders to consider
water and energy as closely linked issues. Otherwise, it says, there
will be shortages of both. The statement recommends that governments
pursue policies that integrate the two, emphasise conservation and
encourage regional and global cooperation.
The second statement says more can be done to minimise the
impact of major international disasters, such as a tsunami or nuclear
accident. In addition to regular risk surveillance, the G-Science
statement recommends building "resilience" to catastrophic events by,
for example, improving public health systems.
The third statement calls for more accurate and standardised
methods to estimate human and natural sources and sinks of greenhouse
gases. It recommends that all countries produce annual reports of their
greenhouse gas emissions and sinks. The academies also call for greater
international cooperation to share new technologies and scientific data.
The statements have been signed by the leaders of the
national science academies of Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany,
India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, South Africa,
the United Kingdom, and the US.
Source: BBC News
