{"id":1496,"date":"2012-03-13T08:35:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T08:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2012-03-13T08:35:15","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T08:35:15","slug":"21-21-foresight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2012\/03\/13\/21-21-foresight\/","title":{"rendered":"21 : 21 Foresight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every two years, the UNEP Foresight<\/a> Process produces what is says is a \"careful and authoritative ranking\" of the most important emerging issues related to the global environment, in order to inform the UN and wider international community, as well as to provide input to its own work programme and those of other UN agencies. \u00a0This is in accordance with its mandate of \u201ckeeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action\u201d.<\/p>\n

As UNEP notes,<\/p>\n

The concept of \u2018emerging issues\u2019 is subjective. \u00a0It is used in this report to describe issues that are recognized as very important by the scientific community, but are not yet receiving adequate attention from the policy community. \u00a0Definitions of \u2018very important\u2019 and \u2018adequate\u2019 are left open to those identifying the issues. \u00a0Emerging issues are further defined as those that are:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 Critical to the global environment. \u00a0The issue can be either positive or negative but must be environmental in nature, or environmentally-related.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Given priority over the next one to three years in the work programme of UNEP and, or, other UN institutions and, or, other international institutions concerned with the global environment.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Have a large spatial scale. \u00a0Issues should either be global, continental or \u2018universal\u2019 in nature (by \u2018universal\u2019 we mean an issue occurring in many places around the world).<\/p>\n

\u2013 Recognised as \u2018emerging\u2019 based on newness, which can be the result of: new scientific knowledge; new scales or accelerated rates of impact; heightened level of awareness; and, or, new ways to respond to the issue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The output of the Foresight Process is a ranked list of 21 emerging issues described in a way that reflects their linkages to the various dimensions of sustainable development. \u00a0The issues relate to the major themes of the global environment, as well as important cross-cutting issues.<\/p>\n

These are the 21 issues arranged by the UNEP headings (with rankings of significance identified):<\/p>\n

Cross-cutting Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

001: \u00a0\u00a0 Aligning Governance to the Challenges of Global Sustainability \u00a0(Ranked #1<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

002: \u00a0\u00a0 Transforming Human Capabilities for the 21st Century: Meeting Global Environmental Challenges and MovingTowards a Green Economy \u00a0(Ranked\u00a0#2<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

003: \u00a0\u00a0 Broken Bridges: Reconnecting Science and Policy \u00a0(Ranked #4<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

004: \u00a0\u00a0 Social Tipping Points? \u00a0Catalyzing Rapid and Transformative Changes in Human Behaviour towards the Environment \u00a0(Ranked #5<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

005: \u00a0\u00a0 New Concepts for Coping with Creeping Changes and Imminent Thresholds \u00a0(Ranked #18).<\/p>\n

006: \u00a0\u00a0 Coping with Migration Caused by New Aspects of Environmental Change \u00a0(Ranked #20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Food, Biodiversity and Land Issues <\/strong><\/p>\n

007:\u00a0\u00a0 New Challenges for Ensuring Food Safety and Food Security for 9 Billion People \u00a0(Ranked #3<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

008: \u00a0\u00a0 Beyond Conservation: Integrating Biodiversity across the Environmental and Economic Agendas \u00a0(Ranked #7=).<\/p>\n

009: \u00a0\u00a0 Boosting Urban Sustainability and Resilience \u00a0(Ranked #11).<\/p>\n

010: \u00a0\u00a0 The New Rush for Land: Responding to New National and International Pressures \u00a0(Ranked #12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Freshwaters and Marine Issues <\/strong><\/p>\n

011: \u00a0\u00a0 New Insights on Water-Land Interactions: Shift in the Management Paradigm \u00a0(Ranked #6).<\/p>\n

012: \u00a0\u00a0 Shortcutting the Degradation of Inland Waters in Developing Countries \u00a0(Ranked #15).<\/p>\n

013: \u00a0\u00a0 Potential Collapse of Oceanic Systems Requires Integrated Ocean Governance \u00a0(Ranked #13).<\/p>\n

014: \u00a0\u00a0 Coastal Ecosystems: Addressing Increasing Pressures with Adaptive Governance \u00a0(Ranked #19).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Climate Change Issues <\/strong><\/p>\n

015: \u00a0\u00a0 New Challenges for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Managing the Unintended Consequences \u00a0(Ranked #7=).<\/p>\n

016: \u00a0\u00a0 Acting on the Signal of Climate Change in the Changing Frequency of Extreme Events \u00a0(Ranked #16).<\/p>\n

017: \u00a0\u00a0 Managing the Impacts of Glacier Retreat \u00a0(Ranked #21).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Energy, Technology, and Waste Issues <\/strong><\/p>\n

018: \u00a0\u00a0 Accelerating the Implementation of Environmentally-friendly Renewable Energy Systems \u00a0(Ranked #7=).<\/p>\n

019:\u00a0\u00a0 Greater Risk than Necessary? The Need for a New Approach for Minimizing Risks of Novel Technologies and Chemicals \u00a0(Ranked #10).<\/p>\n

020: \u00a0\u00a0 Changing the Face of Waste: Solving the Impending Scarcity of Strategic Minerals and Avoiding Electronic Waste \u00a0(Ranked #14).<\/p>\n

021: \u00a0\u00a0 The Environmental Consequences of Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors \u00a0(Ranked #17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How striking that 4 of the 6 the cross-cutting issues are ranked in the top 5 overall, and good news for social scientists everywhere that governance, human capability, the green economy, etc, feature so prominently. \u00a0We are<\/em> needed, after all. \u00a0And comparing all this with KPMG's recent listing of megaforces<\/a>, might be a good seminar stimulus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every two years, the UNEP Foresight Process produces what is says is a \"careful and authoritative ranking\" of the most important emerging issues related to the global environment, in order to inform the UN and wider international community, as well...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}