Intergroup meeting ‘Positioning Europe in global science’

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The key message at the Intergroup meeting ‘Positioning Europe in global science’ held in the European Parliament 3 February 2015 was that scientific research is critical for the success of the new global agreements, such as the agreements on climate, disaster risk reduction, and the MDGs.

The meeting took its basis in a global agenda recently published by Future Earth, which is a global research platform providing the knowledge and support to accelerate transformations to a sustainable world - a research platform UNEP has been contributed to.

Around the table were Members of European Parliament (MEPs), European and international institutions, research funders and leading researchers. In the panel UNEP was represented by Head of Brussels Liaisons Office, Ulf Björnholm, who gave his view on the importance of scientific research and a brief introduction to parts of UNEP's scientific research.

Ulf Björnholm’s main point was that it is crucial to take evidence-based decisions, “In summary, what it all boils down to is to making science relevant, applicable, updated and available. I believe that UNEP, the Commission, STOA and Future Earth actually share these aims and that we play similar roles, be it in different ways and of course with different kind of resources”.

At the same time he underlined that the big amount of research data can be overwhelming and result in science fatigue which means that: “citizens as well as decision-makers may be tempted to either pick and choose to among scientific findings to support a pre-determined view – or even to set aside science altogether and ‘follow their heart’”, Ulf Björnholm pointed out. Science must be handled carefully and with precision.

UNEP is very active on collecting scientific research, for example through ‘UNEP Live’ which is a dynamic platform to collect, process and share the environmental science and research, a platform launched about a year ago. Moreover UNEP also contributes to inter alia the World Environment reports through the “Global Environment Outlook” series, the International Resource Panel and the Green Growth Knowledge Panel.

You can see the full agenda of the meeting here.