25. Climate Change: Responding to a Major Challenge for Sustainable Development

Climate change is emerging as one of the major challenges facing scientific and policy communities. The inherent complexity will ultimately require a much more integrated response scientifically to better understand multiple causes and impacts as well as at the scientific–policy interface where new forms of engagement between scientists, policymakers and wider stakeholder communities can make a valuable contribution to more informed climate policy and practice. The content of this chapter is considered particularly timely as scientific research and policy debate are shifting from one of problem-framing to new agendas that are much more concerned with implementation, the improvement of assessment methodologies from a multidisciplinary perspective and the reframing of current scientific understanding as regards mitigation, adaptation and vulnerability. A critical element of responding to the climate change challenge will be to ensure the translation of these new scientific insights into innovative policy and practice ‘on the ground’.