Written By Hans Keune and Paula Harrison
We are all familiar with the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in relation to one of the major challenges of our times: climate change. IPCC works in close consultation with governments to assess scientific knowledge about climate change. For another major global challenge, biodiversity loss, over ten years ago a similar assessment process was initiated: The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Within the IPBES work programme, both thematic as well as methodological assessments are scoped and undertaken.
One of the ongoing thematic assessments is the so-called nexus assessment which focuses on the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food, and health. The nexus assessment examines the interlinkages among the sustainable development goals related to food and water security, health for all, protecting biodiversity on land and in the oceans, and combating climate change. This assessment brings together 170 expert authors from all around the globe, some of whom are also researchers in the BIONEXT project.
BIONEXT’s researchers are honored to be wearing two hats
Several BIONEXT experts are contributing to the nexus assessment, including the authors of this blog Paula Harrison and Hans Keune. Paula is one of the three co-chairs of the whole assessment and Hans is a lead author in the chapter on health response options. Zuzana Harmáčková and Mark Rounsevell are coordinating lead authors of the chapter that considers future interactions across the nexus. Soile Oinonen is a lead author for water sector response options. So, in a sense within the IPBES nexus assessment, we BIONEXT experts are wearing two hats meaning that we are a part of BIONEXT and expert authors for the nexus assessment.
Now, how does this feel? Authors in an ongoing assessment are not allowed to communicate externally about the ongoing work in the assessment. This has to remain confidential until the final approval of the assessment by the member governments of IPBES in 2024. So, our lips are sealed!
However, we are allowed, and in fact encouraged, to communicate about BIONEXT, which aims to be supportive of the ongoing IPBES assessments, including the nexus assessment and the transformative change assessment. BIONEXT is also doing research completely outside the IPBES context. So, we have to be very flexible and have a good balancing capacity, both of which are key health attributes for big brain experts who lead a rather sedentary lifestyle in their work!
Even though wearing two hats brings its own challenges, it is very fruitful to have both this insider and outsider perspective; it helps us determine how BIONEXT can be complementary to the IPBES assessment.
BIONEXT is taking the nexus assessment even further
In addition to BIONEXT contributing to the IPBES nexus assessment, BIONEXT takes the assessment even further. But how? Well, let us explain.
In IPBES, all assessments are prepared through a scoping process, which is developed in close consultation with experts and the member governments of IPBES. The governments approve the final scoping document, which authors have to carefully follow when undertaking the assessment. This ensures that the final assessment report fulfills the aims of the IPBES governments as the principal end-users of the evidence contained within the report.
In the BIONEXT project, we can build on this publicly available scoping document and go broader and deeper where we as experts, and the EU as funders, deem relevant and useful. We can take into account additional perspectives (e.g. specific stakeholder dialogues) and methods (e.g. case studies, modelling, and interviews) by which we may also create new data and scientific analyses relevant to the assessment. Creating original data is something the IPBES process does not allow: IPBES experts work with existing data and knowledge that is published in an openly accessible format.
Furthermore, BIONEXT can take a more regional (European) focus, as European decision-makers are the principal end-users. And, last but not least, timewise, BIONEXT can go beyond the timing of the assessment report: by the time the nexus assessment report is published, BIONEXT still has over a year to go. This means that the project can then build upon the published key messages of the assessment using its own new evidence.
So, follow along with BIONEXT’s researchers’ journey in fulfilling their responsibilities for both BIONEXT and IPBES!
Yours truly, ‘multi-hat wearers’ – Hans Keune and Paula Harrison