IGCP's Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals
UNESCO is the only United Nations organization with a mandate to support research and capacity-building in geology and geophysics. Since 1972, UNESCO's International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) has actively contributed to society and to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The programme has been focused on:
Responsible resource extraction
Natural hazard resilience and preparedness
Adaptability in an era of changing climate
What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
As a universal call to action, in 2015 the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to be implemented over fifteen years (2015-2030). With 17 objectives and 169 targets, the SDGs have the overall aim to eradicate poverty and other deprivations, introduce strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality and spur economic growth, while at the same time ensuring environmental protection. To achieve this, a great transformation of the financial, economic and political systems that govern our societies is needed, and political commitment and decisive action by all stakeholders is vital. Fully interconnected, the SDGs cover areas as diverse as education, gender equality, responsible consumption and production, peace, justice and strong institutions. Each SDG has targets that need to be accomplished. Progress on the implementation of these targets is monitored by the Member States through the Voluntary National Reviews and presented at the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the main global forum for reviewing successes, challenges and lessons learned on achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
How do the Earth Sciences contribute to the implementation of the SDGs?
Geoscience, or Earth Science, is the study of the Earth. It includes its surface and the processes that shape it, but also the dynamics that occur beneath the crust. Through the study of the oceans, the atmosphere, rivers and lakes, ice sheets and glaciers, volcanoes and earthquakes, the Earth Sciences aim to understand how these systems work today, how they operated in the past and to predict how they may behave in the future.
The study of geoscience also covers how living things, including humans, interact with the Earth, for example, through the resources we use, and the interconnection of water and ecosystems. The overall aim of the SDGs is to pave the way for a sustainable world and geoscience is at the core of this mission. This discipline has the ability to grasp the complex interconnectiveness between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere cryosphere, and biosphere, giving a unique whole-planet perspective of the Earth system. However, it suffers from inherent limitations - incomplete data, lack of experimental control and the inability to make direct measurements - because geoscientists are studying a 4.6 billion year old planet where most events occur at temporal scales much larger than the human lifetime. These challenges are very similar to those faced by sustainability scientists.
IGCP Highlights
SDG 2: Zero Hunger
IGCP Project 726: GEOfood for sustainable development follows an international movement to promote connections between local food traditions and geological heritage, to enhance sustainable development in UNESCO Global Geoparks. The project offers a scientific approach to GEOfood, looking at the connection between geoheritage, geodiversity, ecosystem services, food production and sustainable development.
The GEOfood initiative involves local small-scale producers and women cooperatives, and empowers family farmers and local enterprises with innovative opportunities linked with non-farming activities such as food storytelling, tourism, and education.
In 2022, GEOfood developed an online tool for gathering data, networking among the participating researchers, and for communicating the results. The gathered data is delivered through the development of methodologies, not only in the sense of formal documents, but also through alternative methods such as online assessment quizzes and checklists.
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
The current global approach to health and well-being focuses on treatment, rather than mitigation and prevention. SDG 3 promotes the utilization of preventive measures in several aspects related to health. Target 3.9 specifically addresses the reduction of illness and death from hazardous chemicals and pollution. This is the focus of IGCP Project 696: Impacts from artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Amazon which investigates the cycling of mercury (Hg) in Amazonian ecosystems, particularly in areas with Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM), given their often illegal and transient nature. It integrates and generates scientific knowledge to better understand how mercury pollution from ASGM is transported, transformed, bioaccumulated and sequestered in Amazonian ecosystems. In November 2022, the project team held a workshop in Madre de Dios (Perú), one of the largest artisanal and small-scale gold mining regions in the Amazon. The workshop was held to develop an active network of regionally-based mercury researchers, communicators, and government representatives, who work on determining the fate of mercury released by ASGM in Amazonian ecosystems.
This resulted in the synthesis of targeted, achievable research priorities that will lead to new collaborations between research groups. Furthermore, key messages were developed, focusing on different stakeholders (miners, indigenous communities, policy makers, etc.), in addition to the identification of obstacles that significantly hindered the successful implementation of measures aimed at reducing mercury use in ASGM. Research remains ongoing, and the initiation of a biomonitoring programme is expected in 2023, in collaboration with several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and citizen science.
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
The adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 was one of the leading accelerators to shifting global energy infrastructure towards renewables. The implementation of clean energy solutions is essential for climate change mitigation, and enhanced international cooperation is critical for facilitating access to clean energy research and technology, as identified in target 7.4 of the SDGs.
Geoscience is at the core of the energy transition movement, as without an understanding of earth systems, technologies such as carbon storage, geothermal energy and nuclear waste storage cannot be further established. IGCP Project 636: Geothermal resources for energy transition promotes the use of geothermal resources as a clean, low-carbon, baseload, and renewable energy source, through increasing knowledge and understanding of deep geothermal reservoirs, conducting outreach activities with focus groups and communities, and promoting the installation of geothermal heat pumps. Several papers were published to aid a better understanding of geothermal exploration and heat transfer, including numerical modeling of heat transfer.
The “Geotheroom” free online school consisted of 19 webinars that addressed several geothermal topics, to expand the outreach among different fields in the geoscientific, environmental, and energy communities.
SDG 8: Decent work and Economic Growth
Economic growth can be a positive force used for financial development, through creating opportunities while conserving the environment, as stated in SDG 8. More specifically, target 8.9 promotes beneficial and sustainable tourism, including local products and culture. UNESCO Global Geoparks are a prime example of the geosciences' contribution to sustainable tourism, and thus economic growth through geological heritage conservation.
IGCP project 637 HERitage STONES Recognition (HerSTONES) aims to widen the recognition of stones used in the building of heritage in emerging countries. Lack of scientific references about a country's heritage stones and heritage sites is a common issue. The HerSTONES project is working in novel and effective ways and building capacities for the sustainable use of earth resources. They have created a scientific dissemination video "The Stones Tell Us" looking at geoheritage in Rio de Janeiro, have given presentations on sustainability aspects of the Dimension Stone and Ornamental Stone industries, and support the International Union of Geological Sciences' "First 100" initiative, a list of 100 iconic sites, recognised by geoscientists for having an impact on our understanding the Earth and its history.
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (Sendai Framework) is a major agreement that provides concrete actions to protect development gains from the risk of disaster. It works closely with other 2030 agenda agreements, as demonstrated in target 11.5: reduce the adverse effects of natural disasters. It focuses on the reduction of number of people affected and decrease the direct economic losses caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with emphasis on protecting vulnerable peoples. In the era of climate change, natural disasters have intensified and are more frequent, posing a threat, especially in developing countries.
On the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, almost 1 million people live in close proximity to Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano that could stir at any time, and Lake Kivu, which could potentially release destructive gases into the atmosphere. IGCP project 767: Environmental dynamics of western Rwanda (E-DOOR) aims to understand complex interactions in the volcanic region of western Rwanda. The project team's research assesses the myriad of threats simmering beneath the surface, observing the interactions between Mount Nyiragongo, Lake Kivu and the health of local communities in the aftermath of the 2021 eruption. The project will provide insights for the Rwandan government on land-use management, human health, and ecosystem restoration.
SDG 13: Climate Action
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992, with the aim of preventing human interference with the climate system. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement further build on the urgency of the convention. Some critical solutions, such as carbon storage in sub-surface rock reservoirs, are key for climate change mitigation and prevention, which cannot be achieved without having geoscientists at the frontline. Target 13.3 encourages knowledge and capacity-building to meet climate change challenges.
Climate change adaption further extends to soil, which is a cross-cutting theme between food security, climate change, desertification and biodiversity under multiple conventions including the UNFCCC. Large discrepancies and unknowns exist around Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) sequestration trends affecting climate change. A large challenge is to identify areas with the potential for SOC sequestration. IGCP Project 765: Capacity building networks mapping, and monitoring C stocks harmonises and standardises available methodologies for quantifying SOC sequestration and uncertainties reduction around SOC sequestration estimates to a global scale, to be further implemented in science policy. In 2022, the ‘Sustaining Forest Plantations for the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ scientific paper was published within the framework of IGCP 765, further explaining the contribution of the project towards the UN 2030 agenda, using the Republic of the Congo as an example.