The International Conference on Science and Technology for Sustainability 2007 was held in Tokyo on September 7 and 8, 2007.? This was the fifth of the annual conference organized by the Science Council of Japan, and the theme for this year was “International Cooperation for Development”.? Based on the papers presented as well as the discussion after presentation, a broad agreement was reached on the following points.

While international cooperation for development is mostly considered in terms of the economic growth of the developing countries, today’s world faces new problems in the form of climate change, environmental degradation owing to increased pollution, habitat destruction, and intensified vulnerability to natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods.? Some of these problems are related to the growth of urban population and formation of mega-scale cities.? These new problems are likely to be particularly damaging to the developing countries.? All the countries in the world today, including former Soviet-bloc countries as well as China, are putting themselves in the “global market system”.? It is thus essential that the strategies must be consistent with the highly competitive market economy of the world.

Global warming threatens the future of human society. The recent IPCC report has made it clear that the main reason for the warming is the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission from our use of fossil fuels. This effect is expected to pose significant economic problems worldwide, but most especially for countries in the tropics, where some of the world's poorest people live. Traditionally, the natural environment (air, water, ecosystem services) has been regarded as a free good. This has, not surprisingly, resulted in the degradation of environmental natural resources (both in the form of reduced stocks and by reduced quality of existing stocks) even while GDP has grown almost everywhere. Society now needs to place a value on each natural resource. In place of GDP, the progress of a nation should be measured in terms of an index that reflects the nation's inclusive wealth. By inclusive wealth we mean the social value of an economy's entire set of capital assets: manufactured capital (roads, buildings, and machines), human capital (knowledge, skills, and health), publicly knowable knowledge, and natural capital (the atmosphere, oil and minerals, forests, and ecosystems generally). To create prices for natural capital, incentive schemes must be devised - for example, through changes in the property rights regime. However, many natural resources (e.g. the atmosphere, large water bodies) have a reach beyond national frontiers. The incentives that need to be created so as to sustain an efficient use of those resources require international cooperation. Indeed, without international cooperation it probably will not be possible for the world community to experience sustainable development.

Human security can be achieved through freedom from want and freedom from fear.? It is very important to remove the causes of conflict, so that efforts can be spent in more productive directions such as to increase the farming yield, to develop exporting industries, to form the safeguard system such as social protection, and to increase capacity by human development.? In all these efforts, it is essential that the developing countries have their own initiative and build up the system by which they can sustain their efforts by themselves, even if substantial inputs from developed countries would be required at the start.? It is also important to note that the situations vary by country and by region.? The past success experiences (Green Revolution in South and Southeast Asia, economic growth by labor-intensive industries in some Asian countries, etc.) provide good examples in looking for future directions (applying Green Revolution concept to sub-Sahara Africa, etc.).

Science and technology can make significant contributions in many of these problems.? Of particular importance is their ability in dealing with the naturally occurring phenomena which can cause crises at regional or global scales (e.g., climate change, natural hazards, emergent or re-emergent infectious diseases).? Many of these take place rather infrequently but damages would be quite severe when they really occur.? Although complete prediction is in many cases difficult, preparedness is very important.? Observation and surveillance are good tools for the preparedness.? The scientific information should be provided in timely manner and in easy-to-understand form to the public.? With proper coordination between the science community and the government, the information can be used for preparing awareness of the public, to mitigate the damage, or to adapt to the possible occurrence of hazards.? These require investment in researches, observation systems, information transfer mechanism, and so on.? In addition, international cooperation (including information sharing) is essential since the natural phenomena easily cross the national borders.

The capacity development and governance are very important issues in making the international cooperation fruitful.? In many cases, decentralization provides an opportunity to train and give incentives to people not directly connected to the central government.? Experience shows that international programs which promoted local initiatives and which gave the people a chance to work out their problems on their own often leave good effects in the local community even after the original project was finished.? Despite the occasional failures, such efforts should be encouraged because the developing countries need to build up their own system to achieve sustainable development.? The aid from developed countries for building infrastructures, an essential element to evolve an autonomous system sustainable, should be accorded a high priority.