Academia Europaea Task Force on Environment, Sustainability and Climate (TFESC) #

Academia Europaea is taking a proactive stance on issues of climate and environmental change, through our Taskforce on Environment, Sustainability and Climate (TFESC). The diversity of expertise that exists across the AE membership, together with its wide geographic coverage, provides us with a unique resource. To fulfil our ambition to be a leading voice in this area, we are developing a strategic approach that inevitably will be of critical importance in the next decade and beyond.

Watch the video introducing the task force.
Download the flier.

Scope of the Task Force #

The focus for the Task Force is to:

• Identify opportunities for action, where the AE can, through its membership, capture scientific knowledge in its broadest sense

• Utilise this knowledge to provide expert analyses and added-value inputs (both research and policy-related) to inform external audiences, and

• Address topics that have a very clear societal dimension and that take account of and address the multi-dimensional risks and challenges for a future sustainable European society.

• Identify and deliver on those issues where the Academia Europaea can make a clear and impactful contribution.

Mode of operation #

The Task Force is a (self-) steering group, acting on behalf of the Board of Trustees. The Task Force establishes and manages a programme of activities, delivered through harnessing AE’s multi-and interdisciplinary expertise. The Task Force is inclusive and has an Academia Europaea–wide remit.

Mandate and Task Force composition#

The Task Force has an initial mandate of three years, starting from the AGM of 2022. The Task Force is small and flexible, consisting of a core managing group of four members, drawn from across the four classes of the Academia Europaea. In addition, the Task Force has up to six ’expert’ members, appointed by the Core Group to ensure an adequate coverage of relevant disciplinary expertise from across the membership of Academia Europaea.

Core management team #

Class A1: Verena Winiwarter (Social ecology & environmental history, Austria), Deputy Chair

Class A2: Peter Wagner (Social sciences, Spain), Chair
Phoebe Koundouri (Greece), Co-chair

Class B: Eystein Jansen (Paleoclimatology, Norway)

Class C: Jane Hill (Ecology, UK)

Experts #

Poul Holm (History, Ireland)
Stephen Evans (Sustainable engineering, UK)
Nebojsa Nakicenovic (Technological and social change, Austria)
Scott Bremer (Member of YAE, environmental governance, place-based climate solutions, Norway)
Katalin Solymosi (Member of YAE, plant biology, biophysics, Hungary)