Falling Walls 2023: How open and interdisciplinary science can tackle the climate crisis

Meeting Announcement

FRONTIERS

 

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FRED FENTER, CLIMATE ACTION FUTURE

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CREDIT: FRONTIERS/ FALLING WALLS FOUNDATION

Open access publisher Frontiers and the Frontiers Research Foundation joined this year’s Falling Walls Science Summit held on 7-9 November in Berlin, Germany. The Falling Walls Science Summit is a prominent gathering that unites experts from various scientific disciplines to explore groundbreaking research and foster collaborative solutions for the challenges of our time. As a global platform for scientific exchange, this annual event serves as a catalyst for innovation, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, and promoting breakthrough thinking.  

The three-day event includes inspiring keynotes, thought-provoking discussions, and exciting pitches from some of the most innovative minds in science and technology, exploring how scientific breakthroughs can pave the way towards a more equitable and sustainable future. These breakthroughs cover a diverse range of topics, from physical sciences, life sciences, sciencepreneurship, art and science, and planetary health to discovering earth and space, emerging talents, engineering and technology, and social sciences and humanities.    

The Falling Walls Foundation and Frontiers partnered to organize the Climate Action Future plenary table on 8 November, which addressed the slow and inadequate progress in climate action. Featuring a group of leaders in science, policy, and academic publishing, the plenary investigated the reasons behind the failure, emphasized the need to reinvigorate COP process with solution-driven methods in mind, and explored the role of open science in accelerating solutions, mobilizing stakeholders, and triggering a Green Renaissance. Vivienne Parry OBE, science journalist, author, and former BBC presenter, moderated the discussion, which featured: 

• Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research  

• Massamba Thioye, Executive, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 

• Lars Peter Riishøjgaard, Director, Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, World Meteorological Organization  

• Lee Howell, Executive Director, Villars Institute  

• Frederick Fenter, Chief Executive Editor, Frontiers   

Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute, emphasized the importance of the upcoming COP28 to be one of change, as the climate emergency is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. “Now we need to deliver. We need to be accountable; we need to align with science, we need to put the money on the table, and we have to do it in an equitable way. Now it’s time to pull up our sleeves and get serious. COP28 must be the mitigation COP. It must be the meeting when we start really showing credible pathways to phase out fossil fuels.”    

Panelists also talked about other essential steps to bring about systemic change and restore the planetary boundaries. Massamba Thioye, executive of the UNFCCC, captured these key areas when he said: “We will not be able to address the challenge of climate and sustainability if we do not do something with our inner development goal. This can be articulated around three main principles: caring, sharing, and daring. Firstly, we need to genuinely care about the well-being and needs of the people and the planet. Secondly, we need to share knowledge, which is why open science is extremely important. And thirdly, we need to set goals and targets not on the basis of what we believe is possible, but on what is needed.” 

The plenary echoed the three principles of caring, sharing, and daring raised by Thioye. Frederick Fenter, chief executive editor at Frontiers, highlighted the significance of sharing knowledge through open science and doing so with urgency. He referenced the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and how openly shared research through the CORD-19 dataset sparked innovation, resulting in millions of lives saved. This same can, and must, be done with the climate crisis. Fenter said: “Open science has to be part of the toolkit of solutions in terms of addressing the climate emergency.”   

To unlock the world’s science, Fenter introduced the Open Science Charter, an initiative by the Frontiers Research Foundation, which urges governments, research institutions, and funders, as well as industry leaders to commit and act in four main areas: 

1. Universal and unrestricted access to scientific knowledge by 2030: Commit to transitioning all published research articles to fully open-access models by the end of the decade. 

1. Uphold peer-review quality: Preserve and champion the core values of scientific publishing, including registration, validation, certification, and perpetual conservation of scientific findings.  

1. Transparent pricing linked to quality: Adopt transparent financial models that directly correlate the price of publication with the quality of services offered.  

1. Strengthen trust in science: Make the knowledge available to the public who helped pay for it and who will benefit from its deployment 

The theme of accelerating solutions for the most effective mitigation developed in the Climate Action Future plenary table was picked up and further discussed during the Planetary Boundary Science: Advancing Science to Save the Planet round table, organized by the Frontiers Research Foundation and the Falling Walls Foundation. The round table examined the type of science needed to make progress and how to get the right stakeholders on board. Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, professor of Open Science Policy (Free University of Brussels), and former Head of Unit for Open Science Policy at the European Commission, moderated the round table, which included: 

• Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research  

• Wendy Broadgate, Global Hub Director, Future Earth  

• Maria Nilsson, Professor, Umeå University, Frontiers Planet Prize national champion 2023, Sweden  

• Paul Behrens, Associate Professor, Leiden University, Frontiers Planet Prize international champion 2023, the Netherlands   

Despite the high-quality science being done within different fields, there is a greater need for more interdisciplinary science. Wendy Broadgate, global hub director at Future Earth, said: “The planet is a system of interconnected cycles, and we need very interconnected science to understand the systems themselves, how we people are perturbing those systems, and what solutions we need to bring our behavior and our activities back within planetary boundaries.”  

This type of science is crucial to serve as a “voice of the earth system,” said director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Johan Rockström, and guide sustainable development with respect to the planetary boundaries. It’s made possible in part by funding institutions and initiatives like the Frontiers Planet Prize, which was launched in 2022. Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said: “The Frontiers Planet Prize is a competition based on scientific excellence, contributing to better understanding [of planetary science], showing potential ways forward and potential ways to scale, connecting several of the boundaries so that we don't have micro solutions, but rather something that can be planetary.”   

Platforms like this also help bring more awareness to the latest discoveries among decisive stakeholders like policymakers and forward-thinking businesses. Opening these lines of communication and ensuring scientists are part of the thoughtful dialogue that considers the needs, concerns, and motivations of each party is key as everyone plays an important role in helping our planet. 

To support and sign The Open Science Charter, please visit here. 

More insights from the 2023 Falling Walls Science Summit sessions can be found on the Frontiers blog and Frontiers Policy Labs commentary. 

Full recordings of each session are available here: 

Climate Action Future plenary table 

Planetary Boundary Science round table 

KIT is planning for climate research in space

The CAIRT satellite mission aims to clarify how the Earth's atmosphere reacts to climate change

Grant and Award Announcement

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FÜR TECHNOLOGIE (KIT)

 

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THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE ABOVE TIMMINS, CANADA IN AUGUST 2022, PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE GLORIA SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT FROM A BALLOON (PHOTO: KIT)

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CREDIT: KIT

ESA's decision to further pursue the CAIRT (changing-atmosphere infrared tomography) satellite mission as one of two projects was confirmed by the ESA Programme Board for Earth Observation on Tuesday (21.11.2023). "For us, this means that the mission is now entering Phase A - which makes our plans much more concrete," explains Professor Björn-Martin Sinnhuber from the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research at KIT, who is coordinating the scientific work. "If ESA ultimately selects our proposal, we should be able to get data in the early 2030s." By then, CAIRT could be launched into orbit as the ESA Earth Explorer 11 satellite. The purpose of the mission is to obtain urgently needed data on changes in the Earth's atmosphere. These data are expected to improve understanding of the links between atmospheric circulation, the exact composition of the atmosphere and regional climate changes.

Space tomograph for the atmosphere

The centerpiece of CAIRT is an imaging infrared spectrometer to measure a large number of trace gases, aerosols and atmospheric waves with unprecedented spatial resolution. "We are familiar with tomography as a tool for medical diagnostics," says Sinnhuber. "Basically, the same thing happens here, just a bit bigger. It's a kind of space tomograph for the entire Earth's atmosphere." CAIRT will regularly measure the atmosphere at an altitude of five to 115 kilometers in the infrared range with a horizontal resolution of around 50 by 50 kilometers and a vertical resolution of one kilometer.

The planned mission builds on many years of experience in atmospheric remote sensing at KIT. In recent years, KIT researchers have already carried out pioneering work with remote sensing from balloons and airplanes. "Together with Forschungszentrum Jülich, we have developed the scientific instrument GLORIA, which can be seen as a kind of prototype for CAIRT," explains Dr. Michael Höpfner, who heads the research with GLORIA at KIT and is also involved in CAIRT. GLORIA has already made some great scientific observations, most recently new findings on the transport of aerosols after extensive forest fires in Canada during the PHILEAS measurement campaign with the HALO research aircraft, but on high-altitude balloons as well. "With the CAIRT satellite mission, we can take this to a new level because we will then receive global measurements on a daily basis," says Höpfner. 

About CAIRT

KIT coordinated the proposal for the satellite concept for the CAIRT mission, building on a longstanding joint initiative with the Forschungszentrum Jülich. The scientific objectives are defined and consolidated in close cooperation by an international panel of experts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Institute of Applied Physics "Nello Carrara" (IFAC) of the Italian Research Council, the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, the Royal Belgian Institute of Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), the University of Leeds and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, the University of Oulu in Finland and the Finnish Meteorological Institute as well as the University of Toronto in Canada.

ESA Press  Release “Cairt and Wivern Earth Explorer candidates go forward”

Further Information: https://www.cairt.eu/

Details on the KIT Climate and Environment Center

 

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.