The challenge of global environmental change

The document examines the complexities of the dialogue between science, policy, and society in addressing global environmental change (GEC). It highlights that effective policy responses require integrating political, scientific, and technical considerations, while scientific relevance depends on attributes such as credibility, practicality, and accessibility. Based on an IAI-SCOPE assessment, the brief argues for early engagement between scientists and policymakers, the involvement of social scientists, and the need for funding mechanisms that encourage interdisciplinary work and societal accountability.

• Effective policy responses to global environmental change (GEC) require the integration of political, scientific, and technical considerations, and must challenge existing concepts of economic growth and development to harmonize them with the capacity of life-support systems.
• The societal and policy relevance of GEC science is determined by five key attributes beyond conventional scientific quality: credibility, practicality, usefulness, accessibility, and acceptability.
• Building trust is essential for societal credibility, as scientific credibility relies on peer-review while societal credibility is based on trust, which is fragile and requires sharing messages in unbiased, understandable terms.
• To achieve policy relevance, the document recommends early engagement between scientists and policymakers during the framing of research questions, the use of pilot studies, the involvement of social scientists, and the development of Decision Support Systems.
• The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) supports GEC research through multinational collaborative research networks (CRNs) involving more than 450 scientists across 19 countries in the Americas.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2024). The challenge of global environmental change. https://iai.int/en/como-mejorar-el-dialogo-entre-ciencia-y-sociedad-el-caso-del-cambio-global-ambiental/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. The challenge of global environmental change. 2024. https://iai.int/en/como-mejorar-el-dialogo-entre-ciencia-y-sociedad-el-caso-del-cambio-global-ambiental/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=The challenge of global environmental change |date=8 October 2024 |url=https://iai.int/en/como-mejorar-el-dialogo-entre-ciencia-y-sociedad-el-caso-del-cambio-global-ambiental/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2024challenge, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{The challenge of global environmental change}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://iai.int/en/como-mejorar-el-dialogo-entre-ciencia-y-sociedad-el-caso-del-cambio-global-ambiental/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }