The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a virtual public workshop, Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities for Sustainability Science on November 30, December 1, and December 2, 2020.
The workshop reviewed the state of cutting edge research that can help societies meet the goals of sustainable development and aimed at providing scientific input to the ongoing discussions of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Grand Challenges in Science initiative and to the Nobel Prize Summit “Our Planet, Our Future” that will be held on April 26-28, 2021.
The workshop was designed by a Steering Committee of the following NAS members: Pamela Matson (co-chair), William Clark (co-chair), Arun Agrawal, Partha Dasgupta, Ruth DeFries, Carl Folke, Robert O. Keohane, Diana Liverman, and Stephen Polasky. It was structured around six themes that research has shown to be important in the pursuit of sustainability: (1) measuring progress toward sustainable development; (2) promoting equity and justice in sustainability efforts; (3) adapting to shocks and surprise; (4) fostering innovation for transformational change; (5) linking knowledge with action; and (6) managing and governing complex nature-society systems. Each theme was addressed in a panel featuring presentations by, and discussions among, a half-dozen or so leading scholars from around the world. A Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief was issued in 2021 and distributed broadly to the sustainability science community.
The final workshop agenda, descriptions of the panel themes, and a set of background readings are available in “Background Materials” listed in the Meeting Materials section below. A video of all the sessions and selected speaker presentations can also be accessed below.
Video Playlist: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities for Sustainability Science
Monday, November 30, 2020
1 – Marcia McNutt (NAS): Welcome Remarks (4:48)
2 – Pamela Matson (NAS) and William Clark (NAS): Goals and Framing Remarks (21:05)
Panel I: Measuring Progress toward Sustainable Development
3 – Stephen Polasky (NAS): Panel chair introduction (10:22)
4 – Shunsuke Managi: Measuring sustainable progress: global outlook (10:37)
5 – Eli Fenichel: The key for Sustainable Development Metrics: What to measure, not how to measure it (11:36)
6 – Marshall Burke: Using satellite imagery to measure and promote sustainable development (10:57)
7 – Elena Irwin: Downscaling sustainability theory and measurement to subnational regional scales (13:07)
8 – Catherine Kling (NAS): Panel discussant (6:42)
9 – Full Panel Discussion (26:32)
Panel II: Promoting Equity and Justice in Sustainability Efforts
10 – Arun Agrawal (NAS): Panel chair introduction (4:43)
11 – Melissa Leach: Sustainability and Equity: Reflecting on the interactions (18:38)
12 – Laura Pulido: White Supremacy as a Road Block to Sustainability (12:04)
13 – Jaboury Ghazoul: Leveling the landscape management playing field (11:00)
14 – Flor Avelino: Power in transition? Power perspectives on transformative social innovation (11:10)
15 – Yadvinder Malhi: Panel discussant (7:49)
16 – Full Panel Discussion (25:08)
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
17 – Pamela Matson and William Clark: Welcome and Re-Cap from Previous Day (11:21)
Panel III: Adapting to Shocks and Surprise
18 – Carl Folke (NAS): Panel chair introduction (7:58)
19 – Victor Galaz: Anthropocene risks: connectivity, shocks and surprise (11:50)
20 – Christina Hicks: Situated Adaptive capacities: knowledge, agency, and voice (11:17)
21 – Full Panel Discussion 1 with Neil Adger, panel discussant (11:05)
22 – Marty Anderies: Surprises from the inside: Navigating the inteplay of fast and slow change in system dynamics (9:59)
23 – Belinda Reyers: Resilience capacities and sustainable development in intertwined social-ecological systems (10:30)
24 – Full Panel Discussion 2 (31:22)
Panel IV: Fostering Innovation for Transformational Change
25 – Ruth DeFries (NAS): Panel chair introduction (9:04)
26 – Frank Geels: A socio-technical transitions perspective on sustainability transformations (11:40)
27 – Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs: Seeds of good Anthropocenes: fostering transformational change toward sustainable futures (13:25)
28 – Garry Peterson: Collapse, resilience, and transformation (12:14)
29 – Harini Nagendra: Seeking new imaginations of transformation from the global south (15:27)
30 – Stephen Carpenter (NAS): Panel discussant (3:52)
31 – Full Panel Discussion (25:04)
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
32 – Pamela Matson (NAs) and William Clark (NAS): Welcome and Re-Cap from Previous Day (12:10)
Panel V: Linking Knowledge with Action
33 – Diana Liverman (NAS): Panel chair introduction (8:47)
34 – Maria Carmen Lemos: Scaling up co-production (15:07)
35 – Esther Turnhout: Transforming global environmental science to become more responsive to diverse user needs (8:48)
36 – Meaghan Daly: The role of power in producing actionable knowledge: examining the case of climate services (11:19)
37 – Sarah Burch: Deepening community-based sustainability transformations: the case for capacity-building in small business ecosystems (15:33)
38 – Lorrae Van Kerkhoff: Panel discussant (9:31)
39 – Full Panel Discussion (25:48)
Panel VI: Managing and Governing Complex Nature-Society Systems
40 – Robert O. Keohane (NAS): Panel chair introduction (8:15)
41 – Michael Osterholm (NAM): COVID-19: Federal and state governance in a time of public health crisis (11:52)
42 – Harriet Bulkeley: Governing cities for climate and Nature (11:26)
43 – Leah Stokes: Federal and state governance of climate policy in the United States (13:36)
44 – Chukwumerije Okereke: Panel discussant (10:31)
45 – Full Panel Discussion (34:34)
Workshop Synthesis: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainability Science
46 – Workshop Synthesis with all panel chairs (44:18)
47 – B. L. Turner II (NAS): Sustainability science as a growing field of scholarship (13:01)
48 – Pamela Matson (NAS): Sustainability science as a guide to the pursuit of sustainability (16:31)
49 – Workshop Conclusion (3:45)
The individual videos can also be viewed here.
Videos 1-12
Videos 13-24
Videos 25-36
Videos 37-48
Video 49