Diana Urge-Vorsatz, Professor in Central European University's (CEU) Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, has been selected to serve on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Science Council (ISC) Foresight Expert Panel. As one of the 20 leading scientists appointed from all continents, Urge-Vorsatz will be part of the group which oversees critical work on environmental horizon scanning and strategic foresight. The panel comprises distinguished scholars and specialists across the scientific community representing a wide spectrum of disciplines, training and cognitive diversity, recruited from all world regions.
The work of the panel will culminate into a Global Report to be published in 2024. The report together with the insights and recommendations of the panel will inform the deliberations of the sixth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) in February 2024 and the Summit of the Future.
The main responsibilities of the panel are to support the systematic detection, interpretation and evaluation of emerging issues, weak signals of change and that can impact the realization of global environmental outcomes; provide guidance on bodies of evidence and knowledge to be incorporated; and contribute to evidence gathering; participate in collective sense-making sessions including structured debate and prioritization of initial issues and signals and constructed phenomena; contribute to report writing and review; support the mapping of key stakeholders and potential users; provide feedback on methods and modalities for expert elicitations and stakeholder consultations to ensure that the Global Report and the process of its elaboration is open, inclusive, balanced and evidence-based; and provide guidance to UNEP and the ISC on the overarching framework, design and process to deliver the Global Foresight report.
