Chemistry International -- Newsmagazine for IUPAC

The Global Young Academy Calls on Scientific Community to Promote Sustainability

On 20 June 2012, the Global Young Academy issued a statement calling on the scientific community to do more to promote progress towards global sustainability. “The problem is not science, it is leadership,” said GYA co-chair Rees Kassen.

Members of the GYA feel a special urgency on sustainability, since many of them came of age in the period between the first “Earth Summit” on sustainability in Rio in 1992 and the United Nations Conference on Sustainability—the so-called Rio+20 meeting—held last June. “We are the inheritors of the decisions being made over the next three days,” said GYA co-chair Bernard Slippers, “so we have a vested interest in charting the way forward.”

According to GYA, the “Sandton Declaration” makes it clear that sometimes scientists are their own worst enemy. Reward structures in science often discourage or even punish public engagement and outreach. “This must change,” Kassen says. The declaration calls on the scientific community to revise its reward structures to value knowledge mobilization by scientists themselves. It also encourages scientists to take a more active role in promoting the use of scientific evidence in decision making and encouraging inquiry-based science education in schools and universities.

The Global Young Academy, founded in 2010, describes itself as the voice of young scientists around the world. Members are chosen for their demonstrated excellence in scientific achievement and commitment to civil society. Currently there are 172 members from 54 countries in GYA.