this is very interesting and it drives common people towards the real emerging environmental problems in 21st century. they would be surprised to see none of the top 5 problems belong to scientific issues.

1. 21 ISSUES FOR 21st CENTURY
Ipsita Nandi
M.Phil
IESD

2. Flow of Content
 UNEP
 UNEP Foresight process
 Process for development of issues
 what is emerging issues ?
 Issues titles
 What are Cross Cutting Issues?
 Cross cutting issues in detail
 Recap

3. UNEP?
UNEP was established in 1972 with the mandate:
“To keep under review the world environmental situation in order to
ensure that emerging environmental problems of wide international
significance receive appropriate and adequate consideration by
governments.”
- UN General Assembly 1972

4. WHAT IS THE UNEP FORESIGHT PROCESS?
PANEL
IDENTIFY AND
RANK EMERGING
ISSUES
Chief Scientists’
Office & UNEP’s
Division of Early
Warning &
Assessment
22 Experts from broad
discipline and fields.

5. PROCESS FOR DEVELOPMENT
1. Canvass of UNEP’S community
68 issues
2. Foresight Panel meetings held
debated 95 issues
Result 21 issues selected

6. EMERGING ISSUES
 Critical to the global environment
 Related to environment
 Large spatial scale
 Priority in UNEP’S Program over next 3 yrs
 Recognized as very important by the scientific community,
but not yet received adequate attention from the policy
community

7. Table 1: Outline of 21 Issues
ISSUE TITLE RANK
Aligning Governance to the Challenges of Global Sustainability 1
Transforming Human Capabilities for the 21st Century 2
Food Safety and Food Security for 9 Billion People 3
Broken Bridges: Reconnecting Science and Policy 4
Catalyzing Rapid and Transformative Changes in Human Behavior towards
the Environment.
5
New Insights on Water-Land Interactions: Shift in the Management
Paradigm?
6
Integrating Biodiversity Across the Environmental and Economic Agendas 7
Accelerating the Implementation of Environmentally-Friendly Renewable
Energy Systems
7
Managing the Unintended Consequences of climate change mitigation. 7
Minimizing Risks of Novel Technologies and Chemicals 10
Boosting Urban Sustainability and Resilience 11
Source: UNEP, 2012

8. Contd..
The New Rush for Land 12
Potential Collapse of Oceanic Systems Requires Integrated Ocean
Governance
13
Solving the Impending Scarcity of Strategic Minerals and Avoiding Electronic
Waste
14
Shortcutting the Degradation of Inland Waters in Developing Countries 15
Acting on the Signal of Climate Change in the Changing Frequency of
Extreme Events
16
The Environmental Consequences of Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors 17
New Concepts for Coping with Creeping Changes and Imminent Thresholds 18
Coastal Ecosystems: Addressing Increasing Pressures with Adaptive
Governance
19
Coping with Migration Caused by New Aspects of Environmental Change 20
Managing the Impacts of Glacier Retreat 21
Source: UNEP, 2012

9. ISSUES… A BRIEF OUTLOOK
COVERS THE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL THEMES
Food and Land
Freshwater and Marine Biodiversity
Climate Change
Energy
Waste and Technology
ALSO, INCLUDE CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
Environmental Governance
Human behavioral change
Bridging Science and Policy

10. CROSS CUTTING ISSUES
.
Issues that affect all area of concern within their context.

11. Aligning Government to the challenges of Global
Sustainability (ranked #1)

12. WHY
Piecemeal approach
Agreements lacks….
• Overall Integration
• Effective Coordination
• Effective foresight
Decision making ….
• Too little representative
• Little accountability
INEFFECTIVE
Source: { Young
et.al 2008)
Newell and
Bulkeley (2010)}

13. How to solve it
 Public debate
 Qualified majority vote
 Constitutional framework for sustainable development
 Implementation of sustainability policies in smaller and
poorer countries
 Stronger involvement of civil society

15. Why
 Shortage of Skilled labor
 Unsuitable pedagogic methods till date
Source: Beddoe et.al 2009

16. How to solve it
 Train the workers
 Change educational methods
 Train the managers
 Encourage research to bridge the gap

17. Broken Bridges: Reconnecting Science and
Policy (Ranked #4)

18. WHY
 Failed Communication
 Inaccessibility Of Scientific Literature
 Less Meetings
 Lack of Interest
Source: Campbell et.al 2007
Choi et.al 2005

19. How to solve it
 Science-society-policy
 Organize more meetings
 Integrated assessment method
 Environmental scenario analysis
 Increase access to scientific literature

20. Recap
3 cross cutting issues….
 Aligning Governance to the Challenges of Global Sustainability
(Ranked#1)
 Transforming Human Capabilities for the 21st
century: Meeting global environmental challenges and moving
towards a Green Economy (Ranked #2)
 Broken Bridges: Reconnecting Science and Policy (Ranked #4)
There are problems, there are solution
need is to act…

21. Thank you….