Webinar: Potential of Rapid Evidence Synthesis for Environmental Action

Background

The ‘triple planetary crisis’ (referring to climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, see
United Nations Climate Change, 2022) is a major societal challenge requiring, among other
things, a steep and consistent decrease in emissions that must start right now. The transition to
environmental sustainability is also a major opportunity for the future wellbeing of our societies
and economies.

Science plays a key role in environmental action, providing analyses of the current situation and
trends as well as practical solutions. These solutions need to be technologically feasible, competitive
and just; engage the society as a whole; and, importantly, be delivered at a pace that is
commensurate with the speed of the change that is needed.

More efforts are needed to accelerate the science-policy exchange in the field of climate and
to increase the accessibility and practical impact of climate science. Based on their previous
work on science for policy, interdisciplinarity, and environmental sustainability, Science Europe
and partners are exploring how rapid evidence synthesis (RES) may represent a useful tool for
accelerating innovation uptake in policy and practice.

RES can be defined as “a series of methods that adapts systematic review methods for shorter
timelines than for a full systematic review” (ImpSciMethods.org); it can be flexibly delivered
in the timeframes required by decision-makers, and is policy oriented (Norman et al, 2022). It
has been widely and successfully used in healthcare, notably in the framework of the COVID-19
pandemic; some organisations are also pioneering rapid evidence synthesis for climate and
health (for example, the DESTINY project on AI-Powered Living Evidence for Climate & Health).
RES provides practical solutions and approaches based on scientific findings.

Guiding Questions

• What are the main opportunities and challenges in the existing science–policy interfaces on the
  topics of climate, environmental pollution and biodiversity?
• What can be the contribution of rapid evidence synthesis to increasing the accessibility and
  impact of science and supporting evidence-based decision making?
• What are the lessons learned from other fields in which RES has been used, opportunities and
  challenges?
• What are the next possible steps for decision makers, research organisations and other
  stakeholders?