2nd GEOSS Science and Technology Stakeholder Workshop GEOSS: Supporting Science for the Millennium Development Goals and Beyond Bonn, Germany, August 28—31, 2012

Session P1: Science of the MDGs and Global Sustainability: Identifying Future Goals, Targets and Indicators

Conveners: Anantha Duraiappah, Rick Lawford

This session will introduce the MDGs and the challenge of global sustainability, and it will give an overview of major science issues that need to be addressed in order to support progress towards the MDGs and global sustainability.

The session will address six questions:

• Q1. The terms MDGs, SDGs and Global Sustainability Goals have been used quite loosely and inter-changeable in the discourse on the post-2015 development framework. Are the three terms similar, different, complementary or conflicting? And what are the implications for setting goals, targets and indicators and the data needs?
• Q2. The world is getting much more closely inter-connected and inter-dependent; therefore most of the goals and targets are inter-linked. How can we develop goals, targets and indicators in a manner that acknowledges these inter-connections—some complimentary and others with trade-offs? Do we and can we develop a conceptual framework that might capture these system dynamics and identify the data information required?
• Q3. How do we develop global goals, targets and indicators that capture explicitly the need for collective action to achieve these targets and how do we resolve the dichotomy between the principle of universality and the principle of subsidiarity and its implications for data collection?
• Q4. How will spatial and temporal scales across the natural and socio-economic sciences impact the development of a post-2015 development framework and how will this influence the data and information needs? For example, how will data on global environmental indicators as suggested by planetary boundaries reconcile with local, national and regional environmental indicators and subsequently the link with the socio-economic targets, and indicators?
• Q5. What will be the main challenges in reconciling the data and information needs from the natural and socio-economic systems to ensure comparable concrete, quantifiable and time bound goals, targets and indicators?
• Q6. What will be the main steps for the scientific community to take in order to contribute to the post-2015 development framework process initiated by the UN?