FOLU-FABLE kick off meeting

Background

Initiated by IIASA and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and implemented with partners around the world under the umbrella of The World in 2050 Initiative, FABLE aims to address the following challenges:

• At the global level, the lack of a shared understanding of how to meet the integrated objectives of preserving biodiversity, achieving net negative emissions from land use, and producing sufficient nutritious food through sustainable agriculture. Strong global models exist for each of these issues, but they need to be better integrated to ensure consistency with the Sustainable Development Goals and planetary boundaries.
• At the national level, countries lack robust and comprehensive long-term pathways towards sustainable land-use that address food production, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and forest conservation, freshwater availability, and air and water pollution. Most countries, including many highly bio-diverse countries, currently lack adequate analytical modeling tools that are rigorous and integrated across the various knowledge domains (agronomy, hydrology, ecology, climatology, and nutrition).

Without robust long-term pathways, countries are likely to lock themselves into policy dead-ends that will have severe unintended consequences. A central objective is to deliver rapid results that can inform global and national discussions on the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement.