Sustainable development
goals and action against
climate change:
An essential condition for scientific
cooperation between the Global North and South
IRD’s position at the COP21
The Research Institute for Development (IRD) has acted as an observer for the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change and, during 2015, began preparing for the COP21 with its partners from the
French higher education and research system, and especially with the academic and scientific communities
from developing countries with which it has developed close partnerships1. On the eve of this conference, IRD
wishes to reaffirm a certain number of positions that it considers to directly result from the state of current
scientific knowledge, as well as the limits thereof, in relation to the issue of global warming and its connections with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) recently adopted in September 2015 by the United
Nations for 2030.
At present, the countries of the Global South must find a way towards sustainable development that reconciles
the fight against poverty, preservation of the environment and health and consideration of climate change.
The organisation of the special UN summit on sustainable development in New York in September 2015 and
of the COP21 in Paris in December show the synchronisation of international agendas. Climate represents
one of the 17 SDGs adopted in New York. The other two Rio Conventions and other inter-governmental negotiations, whether in relation to trade, intellectual property, health, etc. are also components of the sustainable
development agenda2.
In order to contribute to the SDGs, science must operate on a multi-disciplinary and long-term basis, which
provides an integrated and global vision of sustainable development issues. IRD and its scientific partners
from countries in the Global South are involved in this strategy.
The goal of limiting the temperature increase of the planet to 2 degrees is an eminently political decision,
which owes its success to its simplicity and assumed ability to mobilise political opinions. However, it is not
sufficient, from a scientific viewpoint, to guide the actions to be conducted. Furthermore, due to multiple disparities, this goal is ineffective for truly assessing the efforts made by different countries regarding the reduction of greenhouse gases or national contributions, which are one of the bases of negotiation of the COP21.
Therefore, it must not be considered as the only indicator for assessing the success or failure of the COP21.
The observation over long periods of climatic variations and, more generally, of environmental processes, is
crucial for addressing the international issues related to climate change such as the conservation of water
resources, land preservation and fighting against damaging factors especially in areas exposed to desertification, adaptation of species, conservation of biodiversity, prevention and protection of populations against
natural risks and sanitary impacts resulting from various types of pollution, health improvement and fighting
against major pandemics, urbanisation and related mobility, production of sustainable energy and management of coastal areas. Considering the climate change issue and the accelerated development of human
activities, implementing permanent observatories for the environment and populations, as well as their reinfor-
1. Refer to Climatic change - What challenges for the South?
2. R
efer to, for instance, Key issues of the Paris Climate Change Conference - Another approach to Global Warming, Natures Sciences Societies 2015/Supp. 3.
cement, is essential for understanding, over a sufficiently long period, the variations of environmental processes and major climatic cycles. They can specifically be used for the following purposes:
• Differentiating events related to climate change and its impacts from environmental modifications resulting
from natural cycles.
• Gaining a better understanding of the dynamics of extreme climatic events, especially in aim of implementing warning systems for protecting vulnerable populations.
• Improving our understanding, analysis and assessment of the environmental and social impacts of climate
change.
• Developing and supporting the construction of shared environmental databases.
• Contributing to the implementation of effective public policies and to their assessment in Northern and Southern countries.
• Assessing the objectives which will be decided at the COP21 and their compliance with recommendations.
Positioning IRD and the partners of the observatories as major actors in the political actions performed for
their implementation.
For many years, IRD, the CIRAD, the CNRS and the entire Francophone higher education and research system have contributed to the creation and consolidation of environmental observatories, in Africa and South
America. Some are organised as nationally approved observation departments, integrated into the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).
In the future, the crucial need for ensuring the sustainability and extension of observation systems, in partnership with developing countries, should be integrated in a better manner into national and European
research programmes.
The INRA, CIRAD and IRD, in connection with the CGIAR, initiated the scientific «4/1000» programme, which
will be launched during the COP21 with the notable support of numerous Ministers of Agriculture. The goal
of this initiative, which involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the storage of carbon from
cultivated land, is a promising research strategy. It also contributes to food safety and to the security of agricultural jobs. The project announced by the French Ministry of Agriculture during the COP21 raises numerous
scientific questions in aim of assessing and identifying the cultural practices, which are the most compatible
with adaptation, reduction and sustainable development issues for the well-being of the farmers.
Research is a decisive factor in the diagnosis and worldwide awareness of climate-change issues and must
be integrated, by means of scientific developments, into the definition of public policies reconciling the fight
against poverty and the preservation of the environment. It must play a multiple role whether in relation to the
monitoring of climatic events, assessment and diagnosis procedures, but also to the proposal of technological solutions and innovations allowing populations to adapt to these environmental modifications: collective
expertise, support for following up Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), provision of data for
the management of environments, health and well-being of populations.
Climate science cannot simply be universal and must also be developed on the basis of academic knowledge,
which is available or being produced by researchers from Northern and Southern countries, while accounting
for the know-how and knowledge of the actual populations. IRD aims to contribute, in the countries in which
is operates, in close connection with its partners, through its skill development, training and information sharing activities, to the production and dissemination of its knowledge and to a better insertion of the scientific
communities, with which it is working, into international networks and scientific/political interfaces of the
countries and national organisations.
IRD
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