Photo: Manuel Rojo Valencia
The Global Change Research Institute of Rey Juan Carlos University (IICG-URJC) aims to contribute knowledge about global change and biodiversity loss to help decision-makers in all fields, from government to business, design actions to address this urgent need.
The forest fires ravaging our country are just another example of a long list of dramatic climate events, such as floods and intense droughts, that systematically awaken horror and alarm among all citizens. Therefore, it is critical to have a long-term, cross-cutting strategy based on science and prevention to address the climate emergency.
The IICG-URJC joins to all the stakeholders who express the priority need to reach a State Pact for the climate emergency. President Pedro Sánchez recently announced this. All of us at our institution believe this is a unique opportunity to address this essential climate action. An ambitious, supportive, and responsible challenge.
From our perspective, the State Pact, although necessarily political, must be built on science, which must be the driving force throughout all its phases: negotiation, drafting, implementation, and evaluation. It must consider the risks associated with climate change, but also the loss of biodiversity and the impact of other drivers of global change, among which rural abandonment is undoubtedly the most dramatic in our territory.
The Pact’s measures must be built on scientific knowledge. This does not mean that there is no room for the most radical and transformative heterodoxy, but always based on critical thinking.
A substantial improvement in research funding on all these issues must be considered as a priority.
We advocate for the need for science to be much more present in decision-making, not only in the political and administrative framework, but also in that of other social actors. There is almost no connection between science and politics, nor are there stable and dynamic forums that allow for the rapid transfer of knowledge to decision-makers.
It is essential that the Pact consider the need to improve and, in most cases, build robust information and training channels for citizens. Critical thinking in addressing this challenge is only possible with an educated and informed society.
We need a lasting and stable political pact that includes highly ambitious and well-funded measures ranging from mitigation to adaptation, and that include clear, verifiable milestones and short-term and long-term measures.
We are talking about using science as the backbone of the pact, but from an integrative and multidisciplinary perspective that includes all types of actors.
A Pact that integrates diversity—not only biological but also cultural—of territories and regions, of histories, of sensibilities, and that speaks to all social stakeholders. Nature-based solutions will make our cities and environments habitable.
The Pact must include nature as a priority ally. Biodiversity must be a cross-cutting axis of the Pact; conserving it, managing it with new objectives, and restoring it is the only way to confront the emergency.
Ecological restoration is the basic tool for placing nature at the center of our well-being. Forest and other ecosystem management must prioritize the emergence of these extreme events, including fires, drought, and floods. A new regenerative agriculture must be prioritized in the Pact to ensure the health of our environment.
We would like to conclude by reminding you that the IICG-URJC’s mission is to combat global change and biodiversity loss. Within this framework, this State Pact can be a basic tool; however, it can only be useful if it is based on science and well-funded.