Global Environmental Change
UN Scientific and Technological Community Major Group representation
Following Rio+20, the ISSC has been formally appointed as a co-organizing partner – together with ICSU and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) – for the Scientific and Technological Community Major Groups within the United Nations system. The Major Groups structure represents one of the highest levels of stakeholder engagement in an intergovernmental process. The structure was proposed in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), and its purpose is to enable the international scientific and technological community to make a more open and effective contribution to the decision-making processes concerning sustainability, environment and development.
International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme (IHDP)
The IHDP is one of 4 international global environmental change research programmes; it is hosted by the UNU and co-sponsored by the ISSC, ICSU and the UNU. By mid-2014 the IHDP is supposed to merge with the IGBP and Diversitas under the umbrella of Future Earth. The ISSC Executive is involved in appointing the IHDP Scientific Committee. The ISSC Executive Director (or her representative) is an ex-officio member of that Committee. The IHDP has been invited to serve as a partner in all ISSC activities focusing on global environmental change and sustainability research.
Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Programme (IRDR)
IRDR is a decade-long integrated research programme, co-sponsored by the ISSC, ICSU, and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), and hosted by the Chinese Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE). It is a global, multi-disciplinary approach to dealing with the challenges brought by natural disasters, mitigating their impacts, and improving related policy-making mechanisms. The ISSC Executive is involved in appointing the IRDR Scientific Committee. The ISSC has an ex-officio position on the Committee, which Gudmund Hernes (ISSC Executive Committee member) holds. Members of the ISSC Secretariat attend Committee meetings only if he is not able to do so.
Transformations to Sustainability Funding and Coordination Programme
The Transformations Programme is intended to mobilise a broad international social science response to today’s global environmental and sustainability challenges. It should support researchers from all the social science disciplines to bring solutions-oriented, transformative knowledge to bear in integrated global change research with natural scientists as well as colleagues from the humanities and engineering sciences. More specifically, the Programme should allow social scientists to take the lead in framing innovative integrated research projects within the context of Future Earth.