IUPAC’s Role in the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development and the Closing Ceremony

IUPAC’s Commitment and Contributions to IYBSSD

As a founding partner of the IYBSSD, IUPAC actively championed the role of chemistry in sustainable development but also designed, organized, and carried out many initiatives. Thanks to our volunteers who have worked tirelessly to create a series of very successful activities that filled the IYBSSD with content [3].

A good example of such initiatives is the annual Global Women’s Breakfast (GWB) which in 2022 reached over 30,000 people from 78 different countries with 407 individual events, and in 2023, over 390 events were held in 77 different countries, with Morocco, Rwanda, Slovenia, Sudan, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam participating for the first time. This IUPAC activity greatly contributes to raising awareness of the many challenges that women have to overcome in their workplace. Thanks to this IUPAC annual activity that we organize coinciding with International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are contributing to creating a global network of female scientists and their male allies and empowering them worldwide [4]. The GWB has been one of the flagship activities of the IYBSSD and was highlighted on several occasions during the Closing Ceremony including in the video that was made specifically for this purpose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIboHB0qRV4

Similarly, the Global Conversation on Sustainability that IUPAC jointly organizes with IYCN is an annual, one-day umbrella event that brings together independently organized events around the world to focus on sustainability for the common good. The first edition was held on 25 September 2022 and has already been a great success, with hundreds of GCS events taking place around the world. This year, this IUPAC-IYCN initiative continued to grow, showcasing different activities, promoting actions, implementing sustainable practices, and creating awareness of the role of chemistry in solving our most pressing issues. Individuals, organizations, and institutions across the world took part and organized their own events contributing to creating a global network commitment to build a more sustainable future thinking globally but acting locally [5].

But our IUPAC volunteers have organized many other activities during the IYBSSD and beyond [3] including the Periodic Table Challenge, the Capacity building of chemistry instructors teaching with hands-on small-scale experiments in high schools in Asia, and the Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry [6]. This activity highlights fascinating chemistry technologies hovering between the discovery stages of laboratory work and commercial realities. It is a very successful initiative that features specific technologies that show tremendous potential to improve the way we produce, recover and reuse goods, chemicals and energy. And of course, in the important field of education, the use of system thinking as a way to introduce chemistry concepts to students and to connect the molecular world with important societal and environmental aspects that are usefully overlooked [7]. During the IYBSSD, our volunteers have organized a series of webinars, meetings, and conferences to introduce System Thinking in chemistry education and to familiarize chemistry educators with this new educational tool [8].

Javier García Martínez

IUPAC President’s Address at the Closing of the IYBSSD: Recognizing Chemistry’s role in building a more sustainable future

At the Closing Ceremony of the IYBSSD, I participated in the first panel with members of representatives from other international organizations. During my speech, I highlighted chemistry’s key role in building a more sustainable future, from the discovery of reusable plastics to the transformation of CO₂ into solar fuel and raw chemicals for the industry. I emphasized the transformative power of chemistry, highlighting the urgency of reimagining our relationship with the planet at molecular scale, an idea captured by the concept of circular chemistry [9]. This is a paradigm shift that means designing every molecule and process so that everything we produce can be recovered and reused. This means a fundamental change in the way we think of, teach, do research, and apply chemistry; but also both an opportunity and a need if we want chemistry to continue providing us with goods, wealth, and jobs while reducing our impact on the environment. During the panel we discussed how this can be achieved and the importance of international collaboration, the contribution of all sciences—including social sciences—and the key role that early career scientists should play in this new circular chemistry, without which there will be no circular economy.

The Closing Ceremony was focused on how early-career scientists can more effectively contribute to creating solutions for our global challenges. So, I took this opportunity to mention that IUPAC Council recently approved the incorporation of the International Younger Chemists Network in the structure of IUPAC as a Standing Committee [10]. The attendees received this news enthusiastically, as I had the opportunity to observe. Representatives from both International Scientific Unions and National Academies mentioned this to me afterward. Early-career scientists are not only the future of science but also its present, and they significantly contribute to its advancement, make some of the most important discoveries, and are the founders of many start-ups that are taking the solutions from the lab to the market. Half of the world’s population is under 30—but they have little say over the decisions that shape their future. In fact, only 2.6% of parliamentarians globally fall within this age group. Young people are the ones who will suffer or enjoy the consequences of our decisions, and bring fresh ideas, a new perspective, and their own view on many critical issues to the table. I am very excited about what the incorporation of IYCN into IUPAC will bring to the future of our organization and to the global chemistry community and I was thrilled to share the vision and courage that our Council showed during our latest General Assembly incorporating this global network of early-career scientists into IUPAC.

During the Closing Ceremony of the IYBSSD, it is worth noting that a representative from the Global Young Academy (GYA), Hiba Baroud, read a Statement endorsed by 30 National Young Academies, on the key role of basic science in building a more sustainable future which includes a series of actionable steps to connect fundamental science with sustainable development [11]. In her remarks, Baroud reminded us that “Early- and mid-career researchers around the globe, and especially in low- to middle-income nations, are now at a significant disadvantage as compared to previous generations of researchers operating in high-income nations. While low- to middle-income economies have witnessed the largest increase (+ 36 %) in researchers’ density since 2014, they still account for only 0.2 % of the world’s researchers. This lack of opportunity severely limits global access to the potentially life-changing research talent that may reside in these regions.”

What´s Next? The Decade of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development

In August 2023, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming 2024-2033 as the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development [12]. This represents a new opportunity for IUPAC to continue raising awareness about how chemistry contributes to our sustainable development, but is also central to the discovery and implementation of the solutions needed for a transition to fossil fuel-free energy sources. Chemistry must work towards the reduction, recovery, and reuse of waste; to fight climate change and new illnesses; while providing clean water, food, and goods to a growing population [13]. The organizations that made possible the IYBSSD, led by UNESCO, are already working on the activities, structure, and timing of the DBSSD.

Since, the Opening of the IYBSSD at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 8 July 2022, which former IUPAC President, Nicole Moreau, IUPAC Past President, Chris Brett, and myself attended [14], IUPAC has significantly contributed, not only as a founding partner, and member of the Steering Board but also with many activities that highlighted how chemistry is creating the solutions we need to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

IUPAC will continue to provide the verified data, standardized methods, and educational resources that the scientific community needs to carry on with its work while being the international platform for chemists from all around the world. Activities such as the IYBSSD constitute a great opportunity to work with others to create the solutions we need to tackle our most pressing challenges and highlight the importance of basic sciences to make better decisions and public policies based on evidences.

Chemistry in general and IUPAC in particular have a key role to play in creating a sustainable, prosperous, and fair future for all. Only if we are able to reimagine the way we design molecules and processes for recovery and reuse, i.e. making circular chemistry possible, we will be able to continue contributing to improving our quality of life while reducing our impact on the environment.

Over 400 events were organized in more than 70 countries, by the 53 partner organizations, during the IYBSSD. IUPAC has played a significant role in making this International Year a great success and promoting the public awareness and image of chemistry worldwide. The Decade of Basic Sciences for Sustainability is a new opportunity to continue highlighting how chemistry plays a central role in building a better more sustainable future and I am sure I can count on all of you to fulfill this opportunity and continue working with others, especially early-career scientists, towards this key objective.