Why industry's voice needs to be heard
28 June 1999
The significance of any 'social contract' for science to emerge from the World Conference on Science is likely to be undermined by the lack of involvement by industry, warns Bob Watson, Director of the Environment Department of the World Bank, and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Industry should be part of it, by definition" he told naturenews+ yesterday. Although government officials and scientists are present in large numbers in Budapest, there are few representatives from industry, and many key companies are absent.
But it will require greater private sector involvement to get practical results, says Watson. "This conference is a good chance to show how science can be useful for development. But industry is very important for several reasons," he says.
"First, some very fundamental science goes on in industry. Second, if one takes some of the really critical environmental issues, such as climate change, then however governments shape a policy framework, to help protect the climate system, it will be the industries that will have to provide the technologies required."
Watson says that his long experience in stratospheric ozone depletion shows that when industry co-sponsors some of the fundamental research, it becomes much more active in the scientific debate. He admits that critics ask whether industry will be honest in its science when their interests are at stake. "But what I've found is that their research - as long as it's peer reviewed - is as good as any other research."
"I think it would have been very interesting to have companies like Monsanto, who've put a lot of work into genetically modified organisms, (GMOs) to be part of the scientific and political debate on whether GMOs are or are not safe," says Watson. "Some people are gung-ho, others bitterly opposed. It would have been interesting to get their perspective."
Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1999 Registered No. 785998 England.