ACCELERATING ACTIONABLE RESEARCH ON CLIMATE CHANGE ACROSS AFRICA AND GLOBALLY

The 2020s are a critical decade for climate action. Decision-makers, practitioners, and researchers must address complex problems that cut across disciplines, geographies and socioeconomic divides to enable the transformative change necessary to secure a sustainable future for all. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty are interlinked problems that cannot be solved by any single discipline. A lack of data and knowledge synthesis limits breakthrough research and decision-making.

The good news is a wealth of diverse data and knowledge already exist on climate change risks and response options. Yet these data often remain poorly integrated and so the potentially transformative insights they hold for climate change and development action remain largely unrealised. This is especially true in Africa.

Sophisticated equipment like a radio telescope or mass spectrometer is often essential for scientific discovery. But in this age of complex social and environmental challenges another form of research infrastructure is now essential too: synthesis centres.