A University of Arizona regents’ professor has been selected to serve on a commission of leading international experts that will study ways to minimize the damage of climate change on the earth.
Diana Liverman, who is director of the UA’s School of Geography and Development, is one of 19 scientists around the world, and one of four in the United States to be selected for the Earth Commission, a group tasked with identifying global environmental risks and developing scientific efforts that will help maintain earth’s land, biodiversity, freshwater and oceans.
The commission was convened by Future Earth, an international research organization that focuses on climate change and finding solutions for sustainable development.
By 2021, the group will analyze the processes that regulate the planet’s stability and will then identify ways to ensure this stability. The commission will also identify changes within society that must take place in order to reach these goals.
“My current research asks: How do we reduce the risk of climate change while also reaching the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals? For example, how do we raise people out of poverty in a way that doesn’t lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions or other negative resource impacts,” Liverman said. “We’re looking for the triple win, which will lift people out of poverty in a climate-friendly and equitable way, which may involve those with greater environmental impacts — such as consumers in the U.S. — reducing their climate impacts.”
Liverman, who is an expert in climate vulnerability, adaptation and sustainable development, has served on several international science committees and wants to contribute to the commission by helping to identify goals that will be tangible for citizens, cities and companies.
“I don’t think we can solve these problems unless we work not only with government and citizens but also with the private sector,” she said.
The Earth Commission will also work with Science Based Targets Network, a group of nongovernmental organizations, cities and businesses that are committed to reducing the environmental impact they have. The goal is to develop standard practices for companies and cities to follow to protect the environment by 2025.
“This year’s fires in the Amazon, the rapidly warming Arctic, dying coral reefs and unprecedented heat waves and floods across the world are the clearest signals yet that human activities are pushing the planet further and further from the stable state we have enjoyed for 10,000 years,” said Earth Commission co-chairman Johan Rockström, who is also co-chairman of Future Earth.
According to Dahe Qin, another co-chairman of the Earth Commission, the commission will help fill an important gap in how the world is trying to fight climate change.
“To combat climate change, nations have agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees,” Qin said. “What we lack are comparable objectives for other key climate systems and environmental components that regulate the state of the Earth system and underpin sustainability — water, land, food, biodiversity, chemicals and others.”
The Earth Commission’s inaugural members include leading scientists from 12 countries: Argentina, Australia, China, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. They will begin work immediately to meet their 2021 goal.
