Mar 7 2019
On March 6th, 2019, representatives from the national academies of sciences of the G20 countries delivered recommendations to the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in Tokyo, Japan, for later consultation at the 2019 G20 summit.
The statement with recommendations for enhancing marine conservation was mutually drafted by the G20 National Academies of Sciences under the guidance of the Science Council of Japan. The G20 summit will be held on June 28th and 29th in Osaka, Japan.
I am pleased that scientists have now had the opportunity to contribute a topic to preparations for the G20 summit for the third time. A joint declaration drawn up for the heads of state and government by national academies of sciences from 20 countries gives the urgent issue of marine conservation the emphasis it deserves.
Prof. Jörg Hacker, President, National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina represented Germany in the drafting of the recommendations.
Seas and oceans regulate the Earth’s climate, they are diverse and fascinating ecosystems and they are essential for human life. We must work very quickly to take action against the threat posed by increased CO2 emissions, overfertilization, toxic substances, plastic waste, and overfishing.
Prof. Gerald Haug, Climate Researcher and Member, National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Prof. Gerald Haug is also the Director of the Climate Geochemistry Department and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.
Prof. Gerald Haug represented Leopoldina in preparing the recommendations along with marine researcher and microbiologist Prof. Antje Boetius, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, and member of the Leopoldina from the year 2009. At the submission of the S20 recommendations on March 6th, 2019 in Tokyo, Haug emphasized that, in his perspective, CO2 emissions can only be sustainably decreased globally if—apart from other things—national emission trading schemes and carbon taxes which are mostly uncoordinated until now can be advanced to coordinated national prices of carbon and other greenhouse gases.
The summit meeting of the heads of state and government of the 20 most chief developed and newly industrialized countries (G20) to be held later this June in Osaka is the third to include researchers through the exclusively devoted dialogue forum Science20. The G20 summits started making use of expert scientific advice in 2017 under Germany’s G20 Presidency. It was only after that the G20 National Academies of Sciences drafted their first recommendations—for enhanced global health care provision—under the leadership of the Leopoldina. For over a decade now, the G7 summits have also made use of the expertise of the national academies of sciences.