Tipping-points that lead to rapid and difficult to reverse degradation of biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being have received considerable attention from biophysical, ecological and social sciences communities. Speakers will discuss the interactions between biophysical, ecological and socio-economic tipping point mechanisms, prospects for developing early warning systems for tipping-points and strategies to steer away from thresholds.

What is the ocean worth to you?
16:00, Rooom 9
Convenors: Kevin Noone, Swedish Secretariat for Environmental Earth System Sciences (SSEESS) and Stockholm Resilience Centre.

This session will focus on threats to the global oceans, and economic valuation of the costs of action and inaction on these threats, and recommendations for cross-scale management and governance strategies linking local decision making to global effects. The session will include results of a review of the state of the science for a number of threats to the global oceans (e.g., acidification, sea level rise, pollution, overuse of resources, anoxia) as well as a holistic view of all of these threats taken together, the potential feedbacks between the threats and how these may influence management and governance strategies.

27 March
Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS)
12:30, Room 4
Convenors: Albert Norstrom, Stockholm Resilience Centre; Lisen Schultz, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Carl Folke, Stockholm Resilience Centre; Zainal Abidin Sanusi, Centre for Global Sustainability Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Stephen Carpenter, University of Wisconsin

PECS is a ten-year initiative co-hosted by UNESCO and ICSU aiming to generate scientific- and policy-relevant knowledge of social-ecological dynamics for their improved stewardship. This special event will present PECS and its links to other existing efforts for research, assessment and policy for sustainable development and will present key elements of the PECS research framework.

Searching the Past for Clues to the Future (IHOPE)
12:30, Room 4
Convenors: Sander van der Leeuw, Arizona State University, USA; Carole Crumley, Stockholm University, Sweden
 
The Integrated History and future of People of Earth (IHOPE) initiative is a global network of researchers and research projects. Research linked to IHOPE demonstrates that Earth system changes in the past have been strongly associated with changes in the coupled human-environment system. IHOPE therefore argues that society and science can use lessons from the past when conceptualizing and modeling possible sustainable futures and sometimes unpleasant thresholds.

Earth stewardship: Strategies and solutions for a rapidly changing planet
12:30, Room 8
Convenors: Sybil Seitzinger, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Sweden; F. Stuart Chapin, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, USA; Uno Svedin, Stockholm Environmental Insitute, Sweden; Per Olsson, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden; Carol Crumley, Stockholm Resilience Center, Sweden

Creative solutions to abate the pressures on Earth require a new paradigm for development and a compass for stewardship of the planet. Stewardship entails an action-oriented framework for sustaining the well-being and resilience of societies and ecosystems in a rapidly changing world. It should be informed by understanding of the complex interconnected systems of the planet (e.g. cities, resource chains), the linkages between such issues as consumption, population and ecosystems, and an understanding of conditions under which people are motivated to be stewards of their communities and the broader world.

Climate, energy and water: A challenge for integrated management of planetary boundaries
16:00, ICC Auditorium
Convenors: Dr Jamie Pittock, US Studies Centre & Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University, Australia; Prof Kevin Noone, Stockholm University, Sweden; Dr Roger Pulwarty, Climate and Societal Interactions Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States; Dr Michael Raupach, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Australia; Prof Wang Yi, Institute of Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. R. China

This session will synthesise knowledge on the climate, energy and water nexus from Australia, Europe, China and the United States, and involve academic, government and non-government authorities. Outputs of major collaborations between Europe and Australia, and also the United States and Australia will be presented.
 
Intensifying agriculture within planetary boundaries
16:00, Room 7
Conveners: Lini Wollenberg, Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Research Program of the CGIAR, CCAFS, USA; Deborah Bossio, International Water Management Institute,IWMI, Ethiopia; Jean-François Soussana, Joint Programming Initiative of the EU on Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change (FACCE), France; Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden

This session will explore options for feeding a growing world population while remaining within the guardrails of two planetary boundaries: water and greenhouse gas emissions. For water, we will ascertain the boundary, and how to avoid exceeding it. For emissions, we want to identify agricultural development pathways for sustainably intensifying agricultural production in ways that reduce greenhouse gases and sequester additional carbon.

Earth stewardship: strategies and solutions for a rapidly changing planet
14:00, ICC Auditorium
Convenors: Sybil P. Seitzinger, International Geosphere-Biosphere Program; F. Stuart Chapin, University of Alaska; Uno Svedin, Stockholm Environmental Institute; Per Olsson, Stockholm Resilience Centre; Carole Crumley, Stockholm Environmental Institute

Creative solutions to abate the pressures on Earth require a new paradigm for development. This session will address solutions for sustainable cities and resource chains within the context of a sustainable planet by clarifying interactions and feedbacks between societies and ecosystems that link ecological resilience with human well-being. Private sector and cultural institutions role in fostering stewardship will be explored.

Putting the concept of ecosystem services into practice: science, assessment and policy
16:00, Room 10
Convenors: Charles Perrings, Arizona State University; Anantha Duraiappah, IHDP; Anne Larigauderie, DIVERSITAS; Belinda Reyers, CSIR; Sandy Andelman, Conservation International

The session will connect the science of biodiversity and ecosystem services with environmental policy on national and international scales. Oral and poster presentations by leading scientists will combine with a panel discussion between scientists and science-policy experts including Sandy Andelman, Rodolfo Dirzo, Anantha Duraiappah, Anne Larigauderie, Harold Mooney. Centre researchers Thomas Elmqvist and Oonsie Biggs will present "Getting the measure of ecosystem services: a social-ecological approach".
 
28 March
Adapting institutions: governance and complexity in social ecological systems
12.30 — 13.45 in Room 4
Convenors: Emily Boyd, University of Reading and Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, UK; Carl Folke, Stockholm Resilience Centre and Beijer Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden

This event will examine the world from a complexity angle, where people and nature are truly intertwined and interdependent (hence social-ecological systems); where linear relations and stable conditions do exist but are partial in time and space and do not properly capture the dynamics of complex systems; where periods of gradual change and abrupt change dynamically interact across levels and scales and influence resilience, adaptability and transformability of social-ecological systems.
 
29 March
10:00, location tbc
Future Earth and a new contract between science and society
Johan Rockström, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden and co-chair of Future Earth Transition Team

Catalysing improved global governance: Achieving precautionary risk management through deeper science policy engagement
15:00
Convenors: Steve Hatfield-Dodds, CSIRO, Australia; Per Olsson, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden; Marco Janssen, Arizona State University, USA; Lorrae van Kerkhoff, Australian National University, Australia

This session will draw on lessons from experience in science policy engagement to identify key success factors and develop indicative terms of reference for a ‘state of the planet' knowledge building process suitable for consideration by Rio+20 processes.
 
Global Scenarios: Sustainability Boundaries and the Great Transition
13:30, Room 8
Convenors: Sarah Cornell, Stockholm Resilience Centre; Paul Raskin, The Tellus Institute; Johan Rockstrom, Stockholm Resilience Centre and Stockholm Environment Institute

Defining a safe and desirable operating space for society requires improved understanding of environmental and social constraints. Contributors will present scenarios illustrating the scope for society's pathways to sustainability within planetary boundaries, showcasing the advanced integrated modelling that enables complex socio-ecological futures to be explored. Session participants will discuss the implications and new directions for sustainability science, policy and governance.

Science-policy dialogue: Planetary boundaries - Dealing with challenges
15:00, Room 9
Convenors: Åsa Persson, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden; Måns Nilsson, Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden; Henrik Österblom, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden

This session is a moderated science-policy dialogue, with three introductory scientific perspectives on scholars updated planetary boundaries science, global development challenges, and governance. The target audience is broad; policy-makers, scientists, civil society, media.