Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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solutions to problems
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wealth-generating outcomes, and
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a valuable 'world view' in its own right, as just one other sector of the
community.
A failure to capture the full benefits of the investment in the national
science effort, through excessive emphasis on one role or the other, under-
values the investment and in turn weakens the commitment of governments
and treasuries to make future investment. From this we are all the losers.
Lack of recognition for this pluralistic role of science limits the commit-
ment to science training and institutional diversity. This ultimately affects
how attractive or useful science is regarded as a career and vocation - this is
not a desirable nor sustainable outcome in itself.
Challenge: to produce a scientific and technologically literate community and
government/private sector administration that recognises the strengths and
weakness of Science and its potential role in the transition to sustainability.
But above all, there is the issue of the science-policy interface. There are
many ways to have excellent science linked to those who work in the public or
private sectors to build policy; in the context of this paper, policy-makers who
deliver sustainable outcomes related to the climate issue. Yet most of these
mechanisms for the science-policy interface are poorly understood, and often
happen by chance or default. There is an opportunity to work more systemat-
ically towards the overt recognition and improvement of these linkages.
If the science community enjoyed the best level of commitment and had
a well established integrative approach to delivering overtly and rigorously
defined policy options, this information would feed into a policy-developing
process in government that is itself still highly disciplinary based. Further-
more, government is built upon portfolios that more than often appear to
see their best interests, indeed responsibilities, in competition rather than
compromise. In the private sector, this is carried to the extreme with highly
focused and single-dimensional visions.
Challenge: to produce multiple avenues for a successful science-policy
interface, and governmental/private sector processes that can cope with the
objective balancing of social, economic, environmental and equity issues
simultaneously through the application of the best Science.
