Science and the knowledge it provides are fundamental for meeting the challenges facing humanity – interview with Dr Gustavo Merino
Director of Social Policies at UNESCO, Dr Gustavo Merino, who is moderating and speaking on many panels at this year’s World Science Forum (WSF), gave us his thoughts on the critical role of science and policy in addressing global challenges such as climate change, dealing with emerging AI, workforce reskilling and equitable approaches to climate and economic policies.
WSF: What do you think are the most important topics for this year’s Forum?
Dr Gustavo Merino: As the WSF acknowledges, scientific knowledge and its technological applications have never been more abundant, but we still face very significant challenges on many fronts: climate, food security, inequality, poverty, pandemics such as Covid-19, armed conflict, risks to global peace and security, and regulating the risks associated with new technologies like AI and biotechnology. These challenges that will come to define our future and science and the knowledge it provides are fundamental for meeting the challenges facing humanity, but they also create new challenges. The interface between science and policy and public trust in science is at the core of humanity’s ability to cope with these challenges. And by the way, that is the objective of the Management of Social Transformations Programme at UNESCO – to strengthen the science-policy nexus. I believe that this must be viewed holistically.
Humanity faces complex global challenges and risks, and the effectiveness of this interface, this link between science and policy, depends on interrelated and mutually supportive concerns: public trust in science, the use of scientific research on policymaking and making sure that policy is based on evidence, the freedom and protection of scientific researchers, and the responsibilities of scientists towards ethical standards and towards societies that they are part of.
Freedom of scientific research is fundamental. Scientists face an increasing number of threats based on their personal characteristics, their choice of research, the context in which they conduct research, and the funding available for such research. And we know that you have situations, such as in autocratic or semi-autocratic regimes, in some conflict zones, in areas suffering from catastrophic disasters, but even in democracies, where you find threats to scientific research and progress. Female researchers, for instance, face sexual harassment at work; climate researchers face harassment for their research. Such harassment is made easier by online platforms. The freedom of scientific research may be impossible without protecting researchers.
WSF: How important do you think the topic of regulating emerging technologies like AI and biotechnology will be at this World Science Forum?
Dr Merino: I think it will certainly be a very important topic. Some people get scared by the word regulation, thinking that it might, for instance, undermine development or innovation. But here we must think of regulation in a broader sense in terms of the risk that these technological advancements, which are very important, pose. As I mentioned, their potential is huge in all areas: in medicine and health services, in improving livelihoods and combating climate change. There’s a huge potential out there, but there are also risks, and that’s why they should be used and developed in an ethical way.
Nobel Prize-winner Daron Acemoglu presented his recent research at UNESCO recently, and he made the point that technological advances do not necessarily and automatically lead to benefits for everybody and shared prosperity. It’s a choice in the end in terms of regulations, ethical norms and policies. So the point is not to stop technology, but rather to see how we support those affected, for example, people who will lose their jobs because technological changes made those jobs redundant, those who will be paid lower wages, or people left out because they live far away from where these technologies are developed.
WSF: What steps can be taken to address jobs being eliminated by the rise of AI?
Dr Merino: This is sort of an inevitable aspect of AI as some occupations are going to be highly affected. There are always things you can do. You have to re-skill by providing training opportunities. In addition, we need to improve educational systems and models so that they better prepare people to adapt to fast changing conditions through life-long learning. This may also include the need for immediate support to those affected through income or other means. However, there are also opportunities: there are going to be new jobs and occupations created as a result of this technological change. We have already seen this, and the same goes for the green economy necessary to combat climate change. Trust in science is very important as is an understanding of where scientific progress and technological advances are going. This requires not just policymakers making better use of scientific research and basing policies on evidence, but also the scientific community being able to better communicate the uses, benefits and risks of new technology or how advancements in knowledge can be used to help solve public problems.
WSF: What have been the major areas you’ve been focusing on as a leader at UNESCO?
Dr Merino: Let me give you two recent examples of UNESCO’s work on this: We’re working now on a research project on the fair climate transition. As I mentioned, climate change is creating the need for new rules and regulations, for instance, to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Already, the burdens of climate change are unequally distributed. Vulnerable communities and marginalised societies are often worse off, even though they contribute less to climate change. So the point is that the policies that we need to implement to combat climate change properly also imply costs, and these are not borne equally across the population. So it’s very important to understand how we can use social and economic policies as a complement to policies addressing climate change, in a way that we not only protect those most affected, but also make climate policies more acceptable and viable.
Also, we’re working with governments to produce what’s called a Readiness Assessment Methodology, or RAM, to ensure their policies and regulations comply with UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI. There are around 60 ongoing RAM processes in countries in all regions of the world, with countries seeking to adjust their policies, frameworks, institutions and ecosystems around the ethics of AI.
However, UNESCO’s work on the safety and protection of scientists and trust in science is broad, involves key partners such as the International Science Council, and goes beyond these two examples; UNESCO’s 2017 Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, its 2021 Recommendation on Open Science, and work around these instruments, for instance.
Cover photo credit: WSF