Professor Philip Lowe Newcastle University Director of UK Research Councils’ Rural Economy and Land Use Programme Researching Environment - Society Relations

Structure  Scientific Challenge of Sustainable Development  Social Science and the Environment  The Importance of Interdisciplinary Research (e.g. Rural Economy and Land Use Programme)  Examples of Upcoming Programmes

 Sustainable development:  implies integration of economic, social and environmental objectives in public and private behaviour  Unsustainable development:  fostered by fragmented thinking and blinkered disciplinary perspectives  Sustainable development:  requires integrated solutions (socio-technical and socio- ecological adaptations) Demands a key role for the social sciences alongside the environmental sciences and technology Scientific Challenge of Sustainable Development

Social Sciences and the Environment  UK has long track record of bringing social sciences – the human dimension - to the heart of debates on the environment  ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme 1990s - Attitudes and behaviour - Business and environment - Policy and institutions - Sustainability and resource management  Particular advances from research included : - Fiscal policies and development of environmental taxes - Scientific approaches to environmental valuation - Insights into public understandings and responses to risk and uncertainty - Sources of social vulnerability to climate change

UK Principles of Sustainable Development Living Within Environmental Limits Ensuring a Strong, Healthy and Just Society Achieving a Sustainable Economy Using Sound Science Responsibly Promoting Good Governance

The Environment and International Development Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS Centre)

 Overarching themes:  The socio-environmental impacts of business  Sustainable consumption and production  Responsible management  Examples of research:  Developing local and regional Sustainability Indicators  Ecological footprinting of major events  New decision tools for improving the sustainability of business activity Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS)

 Social science increasingly called upon to address solutions to environmental challenges Calls for:  Interdisciplinarity across social and natural sciences  More socially accountable science Importance of Interdisciplinary Research

Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU) Key public challenges include:  Restoring trust in food chains  Promoting robust rural economies  Sustaining agriculture in a liberalised economy  Tackling animal disease in a socially acceptable manner  Mitigating threats from climate change and invasive species  Reducing stress on water catchments Interdisciplinary Research

Socio-Technical Innovation  Barriers to alternative pest management strategies  Political science, entomology, microbiology, economics Reframing Science  Management of animal and plant diseases  Economics, microbiology, veterinary medicine, epidemiology, plant pathology, science studies Spatiality of Changing Land Use  The effects of scale in organic agriculture  Human geography, sociology, economics, development studies, environmental informatics and modelling, hydrology, civil/water engineering Interdisciplinary Research (RELU)

Living with Environmental Change  Predicting what will happen and where impacts will be  Examining the provision of ‘ecosystem services’  Finding ways to use limited resources sustainably Upcoming Programmes (LWEC)

Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) Over the next ten years the programme will:  connect natural, engineering, social, medical and cultural researchers with policy makers, business, the public and other key stakeholders  focus on the regional and local impacts of environmental change from seasons to decades  provide decision-makers with best information to manage environmental change and protect vital ecosystem services

Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation  Improve ecosystem management policies  Loss of services from ecosystems reduces wellbeing  International focus Upcoming Programmes (ESPA)

Examples:  Sino-European Dragon Programme  Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA): China Regional Analysis and Research Strategy  Living With Environmental Change (LWEC): seeking a partnership with China Anglo-Chinese Collaborations

 Sustainable development calls for new ways of doing science  Understanding complex environment-society relations demands interdisciplinary research combining social and natural sciences  Such interdisciplinarity promises more integrated, more socially accountable and more applicable solutions  Global environmental change demands effective scientific collaboration not just across disciplines but across nations too Conclusions