Scientific collaboration for climate action

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most complex and pressing crises facing humanity. It is characterized by interconnected impacts, unequal vulnerabilities, and need for unified action at the global level, complemented by context-specific solutions to account for geographical, historical, socio-economic and cultural diversity¹. International scientific collaboration is essential for responding to such collective challenges. It facilitates pooling of financial and human resources, enhances data sharing, and fosters scientific progress through incorporation of data and perspectives from diverse contexts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for instance, has been a critical facilitator of climate change research, policy and international negotiations. Collaboration strengthens scientific consensus and creates conditions to enable technology transfer, political cooperation and science diplomacy. The global scientific community urges continued support for scientific research and collaboration to address long-term challenges that crucially impact our wellbeing.

Reliable, up-to-date climate science is needed to support adaptation and mitigation strategies, enable technology development, inform long-term planning, and deliver broad benefits for sustainable development. Undermining the capacities and avenues for sustained data collection and sharing threatens our ability to respond to climate impacts today and in the future. For instance, downgrading climate observations significantly reduces our capacity to forecast extreme weather events and provide early warning. Without shared knowledge and early warning, increased exposure and vulnerability to such events will escalate the cost of recovery and reconstruction.

The current challenging and complex landscape has resulted in significant obstacles for climate-related research and collaboration, as well as for translating scientific knowledge into context-specific mitigation and adaptation actions. We are experiencing a significant reduction in funding for science and development collaboration programmes in several regions of the world². Acute resource shortages resulting from these cuts, pose existential risks for longstanding networks and institutions that have served the global community as platforms for coordinated knowledge development and are recognized for their positive impact at national and regional levels.

This situation offers an opportunity to rethink how climate change-related science is resourced, conducted and integrated into policy. Responsibility for sustaining climate research funding must be more equitably shared as these investments deliver benefits for communities globally.

There is also a need to safeguard scientific outputs, including data (such as historical data for monitoring), and ensure they are developed and shared more inclusively and are accessible, transparent and independent.

Equally urgent is the need to uphold scientific integrity and foster public trust in science and research institutions. In the current global context, where misinformation, disinformation and misinterpretation of data have become major concerns, it is more important than ever for scientific communities to demonstrate the relevance of research and promote openness of information about the conduct and communication of research³. Strong structures and resources that safeguard transparency and generate social trust are essential for this.

Science can contribute to meaningful societal, economic, and environmental outcomes⁴. While recognizing the reality of short- and medium-term economic and political metrics, scientific efforts must be enabled to serve long-term societal benefits and work towards solving major global challenges. Tackling the climate challenge also requires commitment to ensuring science is more open, inclusive, and actionable, and that strong international cooperation and collaboration with society is reinforced.

The International Science Council (ISC) including its affiliated bodies urge funders, governments, multilateral institutions, the science community, and the broader public to act decisively to protect and enhance international scientific collaboration for climate monitoring and action. We recognize the trust and resources that governments and funding bodies have invested so far in knowledge development.

With a sense of shared responsibility and in the face of changing global conditions, understanding that dialogue and critical research are essential to achieve impact, we commit to the following actions:

• Building capacity within the science community to engage in inclusive, co-created processes with policy-makers, funders, and the public; building better interactions between natural and social sciences and humanities; working to develop clear and accessible messaging on evidence related to global environmental change and its implications; ensuring that trustworthy data repositories are available to curate, preserve and share high-quality data; and supporting reform of research assessment and publication systems to better recognize and incentivize socially relevant and scientifically rigorous work.

• Working with a range of funders, including public, private and philanthropic funders of science and development to ensure long-term, transparent, and sustainable funding for climate science in the service of public good, while underlining the need for the structures and funding that support transparency, better social engagement and skilled communication, without which climate science remains vulnerable to both misinformation and inaction.

• Supporting policy-makers in linking research to public policy at the local, regional and national level and fostering international collaboration to respond to climate change.

• Working with the multilateral system to safeguard and enhance the role of science, technology, and innovation as levers of sustainable development, enable equitable sharing of scientific knowledge and urge investing in science diplomacy to harness scientific collaboration for the global good and to contribute to peace, security, and well-being.

• Engaging with the broader public to collectively support investment in science and scientific cooperation, and enable transparent, accessible, relevant, reliable and context-specific information on climate change and related sustainability challenges.

Protecting and enhancing international scientific collaboration is not optional; it is an urgent necessity. Collaboration goes hand-in-hand with developing and sharing scientific knowledge in a way that is open, inclusive and actionable. More than ever, we need diverse and collaborative climate science to respond to the climate crisis in a way that is more holistic and grounded in evidence, delivering benefits for communities, nations and the planet and for the wellbeing of all.

[1] IRDR (2025). Disaster risk reduction products and processes: knowledge sharing for place-and context specific actions.
[2] Nature Editorial (2025). Without science there can be no development. 15 July 2025. Nature 643, 607 (2025).
[3] Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information.
[4] The Royal Society (2024). Science and the economy.

Source: https://council.science/statements/climate-science/