December 2022 - You are accessing an archived version of our website. This website is no longer maintained or updated. The Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform has been migrated here: https://sdgs.un.org/

Global SD Report 2016 - Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Emerging science issues and solutions for the attention of decision-makers

This chapter will build on previous editions of the GSDR and will highlight emerging issues. It will combine insights from applying different approaches to identify and prioritize emerging issues, in collaboration with various initiatives and using expanded outreach to scientists, including crowd-sourced briefs.

The chapter will be structured around insights from global initiatives (UN system, international organizations, organized scientific community), science briefs, and national level inputs (academies of science, think tanks, development plans). Based on this, the chapter will provide a review of proposed solutions to overcoming barriers to sustainable development, – whether in the form of new technologies, insights, initiatives or partnerships.

Key questions to be addressed:

  • Which emerging science issues and solutions identified by various initiatives and assessments are not prominently being discussed at the UN level and should be considered by decision-makers?
  • What solutions are proposed by science to address those issues, and how to make sense of them in the context of an integrated approach to the SDGs?
United Nations