Meeting the Challenge

Executive Summary and Recommendations
In June 2009, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) led a meeting in Belmont, Washington DC, attended by representatives of several of the world's major global change research funding agencies and the International Council for Science (ICSU). These agencies, supporting basic and applied research in Earth system science, identified a challenge for the international scientific community to develop and deliver knowledge in support of national and international government action to mitigate and adapt to global and regional environmental change with an emphasis on regional hazards. This challenge is hereafter referred to as the Belmont Challenge. In response, a panel was assembled by ICSU. It was tasked to assess the willingness, readiness and capacity of the international research community to respond to the Challenge and to address issues related to the integration of weather, climate, ecosystem, energy, health, agriculture, engineering and social science research, emphasizing near-term (year-decade), as well as medium-term (20 years) options, challenges, and approaches to the needed level of international activity. This requires a dialogue between stakeholders (political, economic and social actors, either as individuals, groups or organizations), and natural and social scientists.

The environmental problems facing today's society cannot be overcome by a single nation or a single scientific discipline. Responding to these challenges demands highly coordinated and collaborative research and service agendas. The panel proposes a research agenda to provide the scientifically based information needed by local, national and international decision makers, as they take actions for the benefit of society and environmental sustainability. This agenda will mobilize the full spectrum of scientific disciplines. Reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience to environmental stress is a unifying goal of the diverse communities involved in these issues.

The panel highlights the need for the development and implementation of:

• Integrated tools for analysis, prediction and projection in support of the capability of environmental management to identify and respond to hazards, risks and vulnerability, and to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies. A major challenge is to develop integrated Earth system analysis and prediction systems, including the characterization of regional vulnerability and risks.
  
  
• More effective use of physical and societal observations to improve global-to-regional environmental analysis and prediction.
  
  
• Information/communication tools and facilities that provide authoritative and easily accessible information to policy makers and decision makers.
  
  
• Capacity-building strategies in both developing and developed countries, as well as scientific partnerships between institutions from different geographic regions of the world.

The panel recognizes the urgent need to:

• Coordinate efforts and enhance the support required to address the needs of a sustainable environment and the needs of society. The challenge is to integrate environmental and developmental issues that have often been addressed independently in past decades.
  
  
• Facilitate the dialogue between scientists, decision makers and the general public to support decisions and actions at the forefront of society's needs.
  
  
• Encourage natural and social scientists to work together to ensure that environmental observations, analyses, predictions and services most effectively meet the needs of society.
  
  
• Maintain and expand access to, and use of, the current global observing and monitoring systems through coordinated databases and develop assimilation procedures to achieve the maximum benefit.
  
  
• Respond to society's increasing demand for detailed information at the regional and local scales. This requires sector-relevant information that includes observations, analyses, high-resolution projections/predictions at timescales from days to decades.

The panel established the following priorities to address the Belmont Challenge:

• Develop Earth system knowledge: Building on past successes, mobilize existing research teams and networks to develop and deliver the knowledge required to address pressing global to local environmental and societal issues, with the support of funding agencies and national and international programmes.
  
  
• Facilitate the communication of knowledge to decision makers: Identify the objectives and means for effective translation and communication of scientific knowledge for targeted sectors and regions in order to realize the intended benefits from the application of such knowledge.
  
  
• Nurture the next generation of experts: Invest in training scientists and associated staff through fellowships and research grants, emphazing scientific challenges at the interface of natural and human systems.

The panel recommends the following actions by the funding agencies:

1. Establish an international research and educational network for Earth system science.

2 . Promote the development of the human capital required to address the Belmont Challenge.

3 . Establish multi-national interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams that promote a dialogue with decision makers to identify the key environmental and societal issues that regions are facing.

4. Encourage diverse approaches for the analysis of multi-stressors, responses and feedback processes affecting the physical, chemical, biological and social systems in selected regions particularly prone to human perturbations and environmental change.

5 . Develop and coordinate advanced experimental, observational, and computational facilities that address the Belmont Challenge and provide support for the operational and maintenance costs of these facilities.

6 . Develop integrated Earth system models with global and regional capability that provide predictions and projections of the evolution of the Earth system, including weather, climate and other environmental changes, the occurrence of natural and human-induced extreme events, as well as the impacts of these changes on ecosystems and human society.

7. Conduct a study focusing on issues associated with the integration of natural and social sciences.

8 . Address issues related to the vulnerability and adaptability of human societies to environmental change and risks affecting vulnerable regions, as well as the economic and environmental impacts of potential mitigation and adaptation strategies.

9. Initiate partnerships between nations to draw on their collective scientific and societal expertise; support the special research and infrastructure needs of developing countries.

ICSU Belmont Forum Document: (http://www.icsu.org/2_resourcecentre/Resource.php4?rub=8&id=400)