May 2011: The International Council for Science (ICSU), a co-organizing partner for the Scientific and Technological Community Major Group, has established a website on its activities leading to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

According to ICSU, it is responsible for representing the scientific and technological community’s knowledge, needs, and concerns. The website notes ICSU’s key objectives for the UNCSD, including to ensure that resulting policy recommendations “integrate the best available knowledge from across the natural, social and engineering sciences,” and that support is given to research, training and monitoring programmes that address sustainable development. ICSU’s key issues for the UNCSD include: the need for more solution-oriented research; the essential role of improved science education in bridging the North-South divide; and the importance of defining research agendas through broad-based, participatory approaches involving those in need of scientific information. The website also notes the corporate sponsors of ICSU’s UNCSD-related work, and pulls together official documents from the UNCSD Preparatory Committee’s meetings to date.

The website will be updated with information on science-related preparatory activities, such as regional workshops to be held prior to each Regional Preparatory Meeting. The regional workshops will be organized by ICSU and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The workshops’ results will be presented at the subsequent Regional Preparatory Meetings, thus integrating region-specific scientific knowledge, issues and concerns into the UNCSD.

Also noted on the website is the four-day science forum to be held in in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in parallel to the UNCSD. The forum will report its messages to the UNCSD on the role of science in action on sustainable development. [ICSD Website on Rio+20]