The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has announced the new co-chairs to lead work on a major new multi-year international scientific assessment exploring the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, the determinants of transformative change, and options for achieving the 2050 vision for biodiversity (the ‘Transformative Change Assessment’).
Karen O’Brien has been appointed to co-chair the report together with Prof. Arun Agrawal (India & USA) from the University of Michigan; and Prof. Lucas Garibaldi (Argentina) from the National University of Río Negro.
Announcing the appointments, Dr. Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of IPBES said: “We warmly congratulate all six new IPBES co-chairs and thank them for their commitment of time, expertise and energy over the next three years, to better inform policy and decisions about biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. These new IPBES assessments will be among the most complex and interdisciplinary ever undertaken.”
This report is a great opportunity to assess and synthesize the growing research on transformations to sustainability and generate practical knowledge relevant to all levels of society.
“The Transformative Change Assessment will offer practical options for concrete action to foster, accelerate and maintain the transformative change necessary for a more sustainable future.”
Profs. Agrawal, Garibaldi and O’Brien.
Hundreds of leading international experts, from every region of the world, will contribute as authors to the assessments. Following three years of writing, and at least two public rounds of expert peer review, both Assessment Reports are expected to be considered by representatives of the almost 140 member States of IPBES in 2024 – at the eleventh session of the IPBES Plenary.