An international group of researchers is preparing an agenda on 'sustainable science' for discussion at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held this summer in Johannesburg.

The initiative is led by the International Council for Science (ICSU) in Paris and the Third World Academy of Sciences in Trieste, Italy, and is coordinated by William Clark, an ecologist at Harvard University.

ICSU, the main international federation of scientific societies, was asked by the United Nations to suggest ways of involving science and technology in the summit, which will run from 26 August to 4 September. But there is scepticism about the summit's ability to reach any meaningful conclusions about how science and technology can be applied in poorer countries. Privately, one official involved opines that it will struggle to achieve anything beyond “people in suits sitting around a table discussing options”.

But Jane Lubchenco, president-elect of ICSU and an ecologist at Oregon State University, is supporting the effort. “We have to think differently on how to make the transition to sustainability,” she says.

Pamela Matson, an ecologist at Stanford University in California, says that science must become more engaged in addressing the problems of poor countries. “Development must use water, land and resources in an integrated and sustainable way,” she says.

Daniel Kammen, an energy specialist at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests building on established technologies, for example by making clean and efficient kitchen stoves more readily available.

Last week, the initiative's organizers held a workshop in Santiago, Chile, as part of their year-long planning effort. Two more workshops will take place before organizers meet in Mexico City in May to finalize an agenda for the Johannesburg summit.

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