In July, the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs' Division for Sustainable Development Goals held the 2nd Open Science Conference: From Tackling the Pandemic to Addressing Climate Change.
The three-day virtual conference brought the global discussion on open science and climate action to United Nations Headquarters.
Over 5000 people joined the MS Teams Live event or streamed it on UN Web TV.
The Open Science Conference was an opportunity to take stock of actions undertaken nationally and internationally, collect lessons learned, and identify directions for the way forward.
Open Science was recognized as the keystone to assert everyone’s right “to share in scientific advancement and its benefits” (Article 27, UDHR).
The speakers and the audience asked for the complete overhaul of outdated scientific processes and publishing and research assessment practices that oppose open science principles. They proposed global curation infrastructures for the record.
The Chief Librarian of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library created a brief outline of the main ideas, opinions, and suggestions put forward by the conference speakers and audience members--In Praise of the “Great Open Conversation of Science”.
It complements the video recordings and presentations available on the conference website.
Many of the conference speakers shared the open science lessons they learned while tackling the pandemic, which can be employed in climate action. Open Science for Climate Action is the compilation of these submissions.
They stressed the need for a global interoperable open science infrastructure of content, tools, services, hardware, and software which incorporates the principles of reciprocity, inclusion, and diversity.
As the international community comes together for the UN Climate Change Conference this month, it has never been more important to accept open science as an accelerator to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.
Eyes are now on the Closing Plenary of the 41st Session of the UNESCO General Conference this week where the Recommendation of Open Science (already unanimously approved by the Science Commission) is to be adopted.
