Stockholm Seminar:

Aligning policy with scientific knowledge: integrating solutions for climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequity

Teaser photo: Johan Lundberg/SRC

“It’s not enough to simply present policymakers with information that doesn’t tell them what to do. Science needs to be given to them in a way that they can actually use” says Jane Lubchenco, world-renowned environmental scientist and the White House Deputy Director for Climate and the Environment.

In her lecture, she stressed the urgent need to translate our scientific knowledge into policy and actions. But doing this, she argued, requires greater engagement of scientists in this process and her message to the science community was clear. What is needed, besides the understanding of earth systems and the awareness of the problems, is solutions.

“We need scientists to say: Here are some solutions that we know are working. Here are opportunities to have win-win solutions with co-benefits that both create jobs, address inequity, biodiversity loss and climate change.”

Holistic approaches

She also underlined the importance of tackling the three pressing challenges of today – climate change, biodiversity loss and inequity/inequality – as interconnected issues, rather than as separate problems.

“These are intimately interrelated and we won’t be able to solve any of these challenges unless we solve them together collectively with holistic approaches.”

At the lecture she shared the frameworks that the Obama- and Biden-Harris administration in the White House have used to address these challenges collectively.

“Creating and implementing this holistic strategy has been useful and important and is something that needs to be done much more broadly at different levels in the U.S. as well as in other countries all over the world.”

Three existential global challenges confront us: climate change, loss of biodiversity, and inequity and inequality. Despite the scientific knowledge that the three challenges are highly interconnected, most policies are siloed and focused on addressing just one problem. In this seminar, Jane Lubchenco will focus on emerging approaches that integrate solutions to all three problems.

When and Where?

Thursday 24 October 2024, 11.00-12.00 CEST

The Linné Hall, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Lilla Frescativägen 4A, Stockholm

About the speaker

The honorable Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Valley Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University, and Deputy Director for Climate and Environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Jane Lubchenco is a marine ecologist with expertise in the ocean, climate change, and interactions between the environment and human well-being. She served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and an inaugural member of President Barack Obama’s Science Team from 2009-2013. From 2014-2016, she was the first U.S. State Department Science Envoy for the Ocean, serving as a science diplomat to China, Indonesia, South Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles.

Jane Lubchenco is one of the most highly cited ecologists in the world. She believes in using science and engaging society to craft solutions to society’s biggest challenges. She has a distinguished history of collaborations with industry, communities, civil society, academia, and faith-based organizations to address climate change, reform fisheries, restore coastal habitats and promote resilient communities. She believes we can harness science and creativity and work with nature to achieve healthy and resilient oceans, productive landscapes, vibrant communities and people.

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