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Professor Mike Raupach, an extraordinary carbon cycle scientist and climate change communicator, passed away on February 10, 2015.
Mike co-founded the Global Carbon Project, initiating a global research program engaging hundreds of scientists, practitioners, and policymakers. Mike's research, leadership, and personal commitment have made the GCP a scientifically rich, innovative and socially relevant international collaboration.
Mike realized far earlier than most that the GCP needed to undertake both first-class and societally relevant research. He contributed to understanding relationships between emissions and economic development, urbanization, present and future emissions, and ways to think about the responsibility of nations to address mitigation and their commitments. Most importantly, Mike always grounded this research in the context of the global carbon cycle, including novel analyses on the importance of natural CO2 sinks on land and in the oceans, and how such interactions govern the changes in radiative forcing from greenhouse gases.
Beyond the scientific contributions, Mike was an example of integrity, clarity of purpose, and humility for which we are extremely grateful. Mike's kindness and approachability made him a wonderful person to work and be with.
We are lucky we had the opportunity to know Mike and be inspired and touched by him as a colleague and friend.
Mike's enormous scientific legacy will effect science and scientists for decades to come.
Mike passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at his home in Canberra, Australia.
Mike Raupach: the scientist who tallied the world's carbon budget: The Conversation.
Write a tribute to Mike, please visit here.
Source: http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/news/MRTribute.html
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New nodal office created
The Cyprus Institute, is now hosting a Nodal Office of the Global Land Project that will bring to bear the institute’s extensive experiences in facilitating science coordination and science management of large international programs. More specifically, we are convinced that CyI has the necessary capabilities to deliver what is needed to run a successful Nodal Office, thus benefitting the GLP significantly. Their experiences and qualifications in that regard include: Experience in managing global environmental change and sustainability research Comprehensive research on global and regional climate change and its impacts in the EMME comprises a major research thrust of the CyI. In this context, the institute also also carries out a detailed assessment of the economic repercussions of these impacts. They develop recommendations for effective and comprehensive adaptation strategies, with particular reference to water management, renewable energy production and energy efficiency in the built environment that will contribute to a sustainable development of MENA countries and societies (http://www.cyi.ac.cy/eewrc/eewrc-research-projects/climate-change-and-impact.html). While concentrating on the EMME, their research is relevant for other regions of the world with comparable eco-climatic settings. The CyI, despite its relatively young age, has an impressive history of winning competitive research projects and of successfully carrying them out. Researchers in the three CyI centers have been and are engaged in 38 internationally funded (mainly EU) and 14 nationally funded projects) with a CyI-funding share of roughly ? 14 Million and 3.6 Million, respectively. Because of their good track-record in managing and carrying out these projects, they have become highly sought-after partners and coordinators in EUproposals/projects.
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Conference
25 - 27 March 2015
Dresden, Germany
s a follow up of our kick-off workshop on “Advancing a Nexus Approach to the Sustainable Management of Water, Soil and Waste” flores.unu.edu/nexus-kickoff-workshop, the first of the biyearly Dresden Nexus conferences (DNC) takes place from March, 25 to 27, 2015. The 2015 DNC will assemble UN organizations, UNU institutes, member states, German ministries, national and international organizations as well as individual researchers and NGOs from around the world under the theme “Global Change, Sustainable Development Goals and the Nexus Approach”.
As a follow up of our kick-off workshop on “Advancing a Nexus Approach to the Sustainable Management of Water, Soil and Waste” flores.unu.edu/nexus-kickoff-workshop, the first of the biyearly Dresden Nexus conferences (DNC) takes place from March, 25 to 27, 2015. The 2015 DNC will assemble UN organizations, UNU institutes, member states, German ministries, national and international organizations as well as individual researchers and NGOs from around the world under the theme “Global Change, Sustainable Development Goals and the Nexus Approach”.
The nexus approach to the sustainable management of water, soil and waste integrates environmental management and governance across sectors and scales. This approach is based on the understanding that environmental resources are inextricably intertwined. Considering their mutual dependencies in environmental management may therefore increase overall resource efficiency, and ensure equitable benefit sharing. In addition, reducing the use of resources, recycling of resources and reuse of resources is at the core of the nexus approach. Taking a nexus approach for environmental resources may help to decrease environmental risks and ecological scarcities under conditions of global change as well as to ensure an economic development.
Further information can be found at:
www.dresden-nexus-conference.org
s a follow up of our kick-off workshop on “Advancing a Nexus Approach to the Sustainable Management of Water, Soil and Waste” flores.unu.edu/nexus-kickoff-workshop, the first of the biyearly Dresden Nexus conferences (DNC) takes place from March, 25 to 27, 2015. The 2015 DNC will assemble UN organizations, UNU institutes, member states, German ministries, national and international organizations as well as individual researchers and NGOs from around the world under the theme “Global Change, Sustainable Development Goals and the Nexus Approach”.
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SSAFR 2015, August 19-21th, Uppsala, Sweden
SSAFR 2015 ? 16th Symposium for Systems Analysis in Forest Resources
The SSAFR symposia congregate researchers and practitioners in the area of Operations Research and Systems Analysis in Forest Resources. The symposia are held biannually and have until now taken place in the Americas, mostly in USA. This would be the first time the symposium takes place in Europe. Let it be an opportunity to further strengthen the community worldwide.
Objectives
Operations Research and Systems Analysis in Forest Resources is a truly broad area. The aim is to have a representation of presentations and experts that covers this broad and expanding field. Topics of interest include: strategic, operational and tactical planning forest planning, fire and pests, spatial problems, hierarchical problems, forest operations, forest supply chain, multiple objectives, uncertainty, GIS and information technologies, algorithmic developments, exact, heuristic and metaheuristic methods as well as broad problem areas such as economics of sustainability, assessment of ecosystem services, environmental issues, wood for energy, and landscape planning.
Structure of the symposium
We plan to have a strong series of plenary presentations and parallel tracks. The structure of the symposium is meant to facilitate discussion, analysis and networking among the invited speakers, attendees and students. We will also have a panel discussion on the topics of the symposium. Prior to the conference, on the 18th of August, we plan for an excursion showing the forest fuel supply chain of a major heat plant.
Some important dates
March 1st, 2015: Deadline submission of presentations and posters
April 1st, 2015: Presentations and posters notification
June 15th, 2015: Early bird registration deadline
Call for abstracts
Submit abstract for SSAFR 2015
For more detailed information visit:
http://www.skogforsk.se/ssafr2015
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Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), South Africa from 9-13 November 2015
Annual ESP Conference
We are pleased to announce that the next Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) conference will be held in South Africa from 9-13 November 2015.
The conference will be hosted at a very special location: Spier Wine farm and Conference Centre in Stellenbosch.
Soon more information about the conference will be published on this website.
Call for session proposals
We would like to officially invite you to to submit a session proposal for the annual global ESP conference. Please fill out the session proposal form and send it to us before April 1.
ESP 2014 Conference
To view the outcomes of the 7th ESP Conference held in Costa Rica, please visit the conference 2014 webpage.
ESP 2015 Updates
To stay up-to-date about the latest conference news, we kindly advise you to subscribe to our ESP Update here.
You can also follow the Ecosystem Services Partnership on our Facebook and Twitter pages:
Facebook posts and photos
Twitter #ESPConf7
ESP Membership
By becoming an ESP member you have the opportunity to share knowledge and collaborate with other professionals working on the science, policy and practice of ecosystem services. Moreover, ESP members benefit from a reduced ESP conference fee. Interested? Please register as an ESP member.
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@AGU 2015 Save the date
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco
14-18 December 2015
The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme is planning a series of events at the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting to celebrate our past and to transition to Future Earth. We invite all our networks and partners to participate.
The events are designed to:
present IGBP’s second Earth-system synthesis
bring together IGBP’s projects, networks, partners and staff past and present
Planned events and activities (dates to be confirmed)
Union session/Great Debate
IGBP and projects integrated sessions
Young scientist event
Booth and networking event
Evening reception recognising and celebrating the people and projects that made IGBP a success for three decades
Please forward to your networks and let us know if you plan to attend AGU2015. We will be in touch throughout 2015 with updates and more information.
Important dates
Session proposals open: mid-February
Abstract submission open: June
AGU Fall Meeting 2015
See also
www.igbp.net
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Global Sustainable Development Goals need clearer, more measurable targets, according to new report
The proposed UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ? a universal set of goals to guide international development to 2030 ? will struggle to achieve their stated policy objectives without clearer, more measurable targets, according to a new report released by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC).
The authors find that overall, the SDGs offer a “major improvement” over their predecessors, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with a greater understanding of the interplay between social, economic and environmental dimensions. And while the MDGs only dealt with developing countries, the new set of goals will apply to all countries in the world.
The report finds that of the 169 targets beneath the 17 draft goals, just 29% are well defined and based on the latest scientific evidence, while 54% need more work and 17% are weak or non-essential.
The assessment of the targets ? which are intended to operationalise the 17 goals set to be approved by governments later this year ? is the first of its kind to be carried out by the scientific community, and represents the work of over 40 leading researchers covering a range of fields across the natural and social sciences. Many of the authors are part of the communities of core projects that are affiliating to Future Earth.
However, the report finds the targets suffer from a lack of integration, some repetition and rely too much on vague, qualitative language rather than hard, measurable, time-bound, quantitative targets.
Authors are concerned the goals are presented in ‘silos.’ The goals address challenges such as climate, food security and health in isolation from one another. Without interlinking there is a danger of conflict between different goals, most notably trade-offs between overcoming poverty and moving towards sustainability. Action to meet one target could have unintended consequences on others if they are pursued separately.
“Targets have to be robust, measurable and should effectively guide implementation,” said Anne-Sophie Stevance, lead coordinator of the report. “The report clearly shows how targets could be consolidated and points to interlinkages that will be critical for managing synergies and avoiding trade-offs.” For example, an increase in agricultural land-use to help end hunger can lead to biodiversity loss, as well as overuse and/or pollution of water resources and downstream (likely negative) effects on marine resources which in turn could exacerbate food security concerns.
The report is being released ahead of a major UN meeting from February 17-20 where governments will negotiate an overall declaration which will serve as the big picture vision of the SDGs framework.
The report highlights the need for an ‘end-goal’ to provide such a big picture vision. “The ‘ultimate end’ of the SDGs in combination is not clear, nor is how the proposed goals and targets would contribute to achieve that ultimate end,” write the authors. They recommend that this meta-goal be “a prosperous, high quality of life that is equitably shared and sustained.”
“This is an opportunity for science to be a partner in the post-2015 development process and support evidence-based decision making. For science, that means connecting the dots across disciplines that usually work independently from each other,” said Stevance.
The report from ICSU and the ISSC, two of the members of Future Earth's Governing Council, highlights the contribution of initiatives like Future Earth to mobilize and bring together scientists across disciplines to address connected global challenges in partnership with policy-makers and stakeholders, and to provide the knowledge needed to support transformations towards sustainability.
Connect
Download the report as a pdf |
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