Appendix

Background of the G8 University Summit

“Sustainable development” was seen as a central guiding principle for international society in the 1987 Report “Our Common Future” by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), and since then, the question of how it can be achieved has been the subject of intense and broad-ranging debate at a series of summit-level conferences, including the following:

• The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Agenda 21 program adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
• The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted during the UN Millennium Summit in 2000.
• The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the accompanying Plan of Implementation adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.

The critical role of research and education in efforts toward achieving sustainability was articulated in 1990 by the Talloires Declaration of University Presidents for a Sustainable Future, and the role of universities in pursuing sustainable development is cited in Chapter 36 (Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training) of Agenda 21.

Since then discussions regarding the contribution of universities to sustainable development have continued at a range of conferences, and growing numbers of university leaders throughout the world have committed their institutions to helping solve the urgent problems that threaten humanity and the environment. Notable examples include the Kyoto Declaration on Sustainable Development by the International Association of Universities (IAU) in 1993, the Luneburg Declaration by the Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership (GHESP) in 2001, and the Ubuntu Declaration on Education and Science and Technology for Sustainable Development by several educational and scientific organizations, including the United Nations University, in 2002. Also in 2002, the U.N. General Assembly designated 2005-2014 as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD).

Discussions at the 2006 G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, further stressed the need for concrete measures to foster an innovative society, that would include programs to develop individual creativity.

The conferences and declarations cited above have served as important milestones on the path toward global sustainability. Meanwhile, the distance between science and public policy has been rapidly shrinking. While 20 years ago climate change was mainly a concern of climate scientists, it has been the subject of international agreements such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997). Leaders at the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany committed to prompt robust measures in response to the problem of climate change.

This demonstrates the extent to which climate change, previously regarded as primarily a scientific issue, had become an urgent political concern. With this as background, science is becoming more important for human society. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers a prime example of the unprecedented role science must play in our efforts to understand and solve these problems. One ramification of this role is that research institutions and universities must be ready to provide not only education on issues of sustainability but also the scientific knowledge required to make appropriate and effective public policy.