The Forum will bring together leading international scientists and policy-makers to explore the key role of interdisciplinary science and innovation in the transition to sustainable development, a green economy and poverty eradication. The aim is to help establish the research, technology and policy agendas that will be needed after Rio+20.

Participants will discuss key questions for sustainable development, including:

• How can we balance food, water and energy security for rapidly growing, increasingly urbanised populations, without diminishing the Earth’s resources and exceeding planetary boundaries?
• How can we ensure economic sustainability and human wellbeing in a time of rapid environmental and social change?
• How can science better serve society to provide the knowledge needed to meet sustainable development challenges?

The Forum will also host the launch of the new global 10-year initiative: Future Earth – research for global sustainability.

The Forum is open and free for all participants throughout the five days. Government representatives, scientists and other Rio+20 stakeholders are welcome to attend.

The Forum is organised by the International Council for Science (ICSU), in partnership with UNESCO, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. It will be held at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Register now!

Registration, background, agenda, speakers, side events and practical information are all online.

For more information on the conference and how to submit a paper can be downloaded here.

Call for papers:

If you would like to submit a paper you can find more information on the project website.

Alternatively you can download submission forms in your language directly

• English
• Spanish
• Portuguese

Nearly 200 countries have signed the deal that will for the first time see all countries work towards a legal agreement on the climate by 2015. The agreement will come into force from 2020. The next commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol has also survived, an issue which activists were particularly concerned about.

The sometimes heated talks at Durban’s ICC continued through the early hours, with the deal only signed at around 5am this morning.
UNFCCC head Christiana Figueres has described the deal as ‘landmark’ and ‘historic’, saying Durban has delivered what other countries have so far failed to.

The Green Climate Fund has also been launched, with several developed countries – including the UK and Norway – already committing money. The Fund will be crucial to developing countries, who need assistance in developing adaptation strategies as the climate changes.

The agreement has been described as a major achievement for South Africa. At times over the past two weeks it was thought no deal would be reached, and that the talks may have to be suspended. At one point, it was even suggested that it would be best to hold off for six months and then come back to the drawing board.

However, president of COP 17, International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, managed to get all parties to come to the table and she held the negotiations together as tempers flared during yesterday’s marathon sessions. It is said that most countries are fairly happy with the outcome.

More at: http://www.ecr.co.za/kagiso/content/en/east-coast-radio/east-coast-radio-news?oid=1486987&sn=Detail&pid=490476&-Landmark–deal-at-COP-17

The IGU now looks forward to its next meetings – next year Cologne, Germany, will host the 32nd International Geographical Congress and in 2012 the Regional Conference will be in Kyoto, Japan. See links to both meetings from our home page

Download Full Post Conference Report

Robyn Longhurst

Chair IGU Commission on Gender and Geography

Tireless organisers Joseli Maria Silva and Augusto César Pinheiro da Silva

Audience at panel discussion

Information on the IGU’s IYGU initiative is now available as downloadable pdf files both as a summary flyer and as a more detailed brochure. The International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) addresses the ways in which we inhabit an increasingly globalized world. How do we transform nature? How will we build new social and political relationships for the emerging global reality? Societies and cultures determine the ways we live with and shape nature. They also influence how we perceive the global consequences of our everyday behaviour. You can’t change the world if you don’t understand what your daily actions mean for the world as a whole.

Click on the links below to access these:

IYGU Flyer final

IYGU Brochure small

The streaming will be from the following Sapienza University Web Site http://digilab.uniroma1.it/

You’ll find the Globility Logo on the left side of the cover page which will take you to the live streaming local time in Rome on the morning of 23 September.