The international scientific community has identified five Grand Challenges that, if addressed in the next decade, will deliver knowledge to enable sustainable development, poverty eradication, and environmental protection in the face of global change.
The five Grand Challenges are:
1. Forecasting—Improve the usefulness of forecasts of future environmental conditions and their consequences for people.
2. Observing—Develop, enhance and integrate the observation systems needed to manage global and regional environmental change.
3. Confining—Determine how to anticipate, recognize, avoid and manage disruptive global environmental change.
4. Responding—Determine what institutional, economic and behavioural changes can enable effective steps toward global sustainability.
5. Innovating—Encourage innovation (coupled with sound mechanisms for evaluation) in developing technological, policy and social responses to achieve global sustainability.
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