Latest news with #PlanetaryBoundaries
Scoop
18 hours ago
- Science
- Scoop
World's Top Science Competition Awards $1M To Australia's Visionary Scientist Tackling Global Climate Crisis
June 17, 2025 The Frontiers Planet Prize has named its three 2024/25 International Champions, including Australia's Dr Arunima Malik. The winners are scientists offering innovative, scalable solutions to help keep humanity safely within planetary boundaries. Dr Arunima Malik will receive a prize of one million dollars (USD) to further her research and impact. The winning research focuses on the environmental and social impacts of international trade and its effect on meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following an independent scientific assessment involving 100 experts, chaired by Professor Johan Rockström, the developer of the Planetary Boundaries framework, the prize ensures faster global scientific consensus around the innovative ideas with greatest potential to drive change. On 17 June, the Frontiers Planet Prize announced Dr Arunima Malik, from The University of Sydney, as one of its 2025 International Champions, awarding her $1 million to advance her and her research team's pioneering work in sustainability science. Providing groundbreaking, scalable solutions to help keep humanity within planetary boundaries, Dr Malik received the award for the publication, Polarizing and equalizing trends in international trade and Sustainable Development Goals, featured in Nature Sustainability. This year's three International Champions were revealed at the Frontiers Planet Prize Award Ceremony, hosted by the Villars Institute as part of the 2025 Villars Symposium in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland. The three International Champions were selected from a group of 19 National Champions chosen by the independent Jury of 100, a group of renowned sustainability and planetary health experts chaired by Professor Johan Rockström. The world's largest and most ambitious science competition for planetary health, the Frontiers Planet Prize is a global call to action - accelerating innovation, igniting impact, and rallying the academic world to confront the planetary crisis with urgency and bold solutions. The award-winning research by Dr Malik and her team highlights the environmental and social impacts of international trade and the complex role it plays in achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The research is also highly relevant for shaping policies related to the Loss and Damage (L&D) fund, offering data-driven guidance on financial contributions from developed countries to support developing nations in addressing climate-related losses and damages. Commenting on the award, Dr Arunima Malik said: 'Commenting on the award, Dr Arunima Malik said: 'It's an honor and a privilege to receive this recognition and support from the Frontiers Planet Prize. This esteemed prize will provide impetus to drive sustainable solutions for planetary health. It is inspiring and vital as we search for innovation and action in the face of global environmental challenges. This $1 million award will significantly help accelerate our ability to expand our research and further highlight the nuances around the impact of trade and associated positive and negative impacts on both people and planet around the world. With these resources, we can advance research with policy-relevant insights, and develop tools to inform sustainable solutions, especially in contexts where climate vulnerability and economic inequality intersect. I would take this opportunity to thank the research team, Prof. Manfred Lenzen, Dr Mengyu Li, Camille Mora, Dr Sarah Carter, Dr Stefan Giljum, Dr Stephan Lutter and Prof. Jorge Gomez-Paredes for their valuable contributions.' Commenting on the Frontiers Planet Prize, Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said: 'The Frontiers Planet Prize is more than a scientific award - it is a catalyst for the urgent transformation we need to stay within planetary boundaries. The three 2025 International Champions exemplify the power of science to deepen the understanding of the fundamentals of our earth systems while also delivering actionable, scalable solutions to the intertwined crises of climate, biodiversity, and inequality. Their work stands at the intersection of scientific novelty, innovation, and impact, showing us that a sustainable and just future is within reach—if we act boldly, and fast. It has been an honor to chair the Jury of 100 and witness firsthand the incredible depth of scientific excellence mobilized by this prize." Jean-Claude Burgelman, Director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, added: 'The 2025 International Champions embody the spirit of the Frontiers Planet Prize: bold science in service of humanity and the planet. This Prize is building a global community of researchers who are not only advancing knowledge but actively shaping the path to a sustainable future. These Champions inspire all of us – demonstrating that through collaboration, courage, and scientific integrity, transformative change is not only possible, but already underway.' About the Frontiers Research Foundation: The Frontiers Research Foundation is a not-for-profit organization based in Switzerland, which was founded by Kamila and Henry Markram, neuroscientists from the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL). It raises funds to support programs that accelerate scientific solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet. About the Frontiers Planet Prize: The Frontiers Planet Prize is a global competition for scientists and research institutions to propose solutions to help the planet remain within the safe operating space of any one or more of the nine planetary boundaries. It was created by the Frontiers Research Foundation on Earth Day 2022 to mobilize the global scientific community, make it complete at the highest level of excellence, and contribute to the acceleration of concrete solutions to the challenges defined by the planetary boundaries. To-date, it has drawn together hundreds of scientists, 23 national academies of science, over 600 leading universities and research institutions to compete for three prizes of 1M USD each as adjudicated by a Jury of 100 leading sustainability scientists.
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Why we need scientists now, more than ever
May 6 - When we look back at human history, most of our great collective achievements have long-term science at their core. Science has saved us many times from the precipice of disaster and given us breakthroughs that have saved millions of lives and opened new frontiers of possibility. If we want to leave a flourishing future for generations to come, science should consistently be nurtured, celebrated and invested in, not dismissed, undermined and attacked. Recent political moves in the United States and in other nations have severely reduced science budgets and abruptly halted critical research; threatening lives, halting innovation, undermining economies and risking planetary stability. Now is the moment for all of us to speak out. The path forward is not guided by ideology, but by evidence. Facts do not waver under political pressure. Research institutions across the globe stand in solidarity. Together, we must continue to support them, to uphold scientific integrity and the pursuit of solutions grounded in knowledge and collaboration. As a collective, we believe in the importance of science to navigate the planetary emergency. In 2023, scientists fully assessed all nine Planetary Boundaries, the critical Earth system processes that ensure planetary stability. This scientific framework is critical, as it allows us to; understand where we are, to prioritise our efforts and to facilitate scaled collaboration. The latest update showed that six of the nine have been breached, heightening the risk of large-scale, potentially irreversible damage to life as we know it. To safeguard a stable, resilient and liveable planet, we must respect all nine, as they collectively define the safe operating space for humanity on Earth. Achieving this requires investment in science and holistic thinking on a planetary scale, which is a great opportunity to ensure we are also protecting human health across all dimensions, such as chemical pollution, freshwater use, biodiversity protection, ocean stability and more. It also requires us to listen to and learn from the wisdom of the original stewards of the planet: Indigenous peoples. You can learn more about the Planetary Health Check here. History offers us hope. Back in the 1970s, courageous scientists such as Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina raised an alarm that CFCs, which were in everything at the time from deodorants to refrigerators, were destroying the ozone layer. Their alarm turned out to be an early warning that was at first dismissed and then attacked, before being proven to be the alarm that would steer us away from catastrophic consequences, as a result millions of cases of skin cancer were averted, eye cataracts prevented as well as the eventual destruction of ecosystems loss that could have led to agricultural system collapse, the list goes on. Fortunately, the world mobilised across political and other divides to globally secure and implement the Montreal Protocol that saved all our lives. Science was at the centre of this collective achievement. This included the importance of the longevity of investment in science that allowed the British Antarctic Survey to irrefutably prove the damage to the ozone layer, thanks to their meticulous tracking of atmospheric data since 1957. The group of scientists and others who mobilised behind them are true collective heroes. Their courage and actions, have allowed us to continue to live on this wondrous planet. This vibrant community, active since long before the protocol's signing in 1987, continues to thrive, driven by dedicated leaders, rotating experts and collaborative institutions such as the Ozone Secretariat. The protocol stands as a powerful example of global cooperation to protect the planet, demonstrating that scientists, citizens, independent research institutions, governments, industry and the U.N. can work together to achieve environmental breakthroughs through diplomacy, trust and shared commitment. We can do this again. This is a planetary emergency, but also a moment of opportunity. Let us not be divided by political narratives, but united by our shared responsibility and grounded in modern and Indigenous people's science. Planetary Guardians: Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim (Chair), Paul Polman, JM Santos, former president of Colombia, (Co Vice-Chairs) Xiye Bastida, Ralph Chami, Wade Davis, Sylvia Earle, Farwiza Farhan, Christiana Figueres, Jane Goodall, Dr Naoko Ishii, Hiro Mizuno, Sunita Narain, Carlos Nobre, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Mary Robinson, Ayisha Siddiqa, David Suzuki. Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. Ethical Corporation Magazine, a part of Reuters Professional, is owned by Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.
