The climate research network Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA) has outlined its position on the role of science in society and its responsibility in the face of the major challenges of our time in a position paper from June 2024.
Despite 50 years of scientific warnings about the consequences of unlimited material growth and 30 years of intensive efforts towards sustainable development, the world remains far from a global solution to these challenges. This raises urgent questions: How could this happen despite comprehensive scientific knowledge and extensive research programmes on sustainable development and climate neutrality?
In an increasingly sceptical society, CCCA is facing up to these challenges and has formulated four key questions, the answers to which are intended to provide not only guidance for the network itself, but also impetus for public discourse:
- Responsibility of science: How should the role and responsibility of scientists and science be understood in light of today's major societal challenges?
- Public trust: How must science evolve or change in order to (re)earn the trust of society?
- Role of scientists: What needs to change so that scientists can live up to this understanding of science?
- CCCA activities: How does CCCA intend to act in support of transdisciplinary research and as a contributor to the societal transformation towards climate neutrality?