Major international event focuses on responses to global sustainability challenges

2,500 specialists, defining the 'state of the planet,' will send recommendations to Rio+20

The forthcoming Planet under Pressure conference (London, UK, March 26-29) is a major international event focusing on responses to global sustainability challenges.

Some 2,500+ leading thinkers in a wide range of global change research areas will present new findings in climate change, environmental geo-engineering, international governance, the future of the oceans and biodiversity, global trade, development, poverty alleviation, food security and more. Authoritative perspectives on today's State of the Planet and recommendations will form a contribution to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development ("Rio+20"), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 20-22.

Planet under Pressure will convene specialists in physical, natural and health sciences; economics, the humanities and other social sciences; technology and engineering; international policy making, NGOs, industry and development. It offers an important forum to consolidate these relationships and discuss the future.

Among topics to be highlighted in news releases and media briefings:

• The world's cities and global environmental change
• New strategies for defining planetary boundaries
• State of the coastal zone
• Prospects of information and communications technologies for sustainability in developing countries
• Securing global biodiversity: a human imperative for a sustainable planet
• Responses of small island developing states to impacts of global environmental change
• Life in extreme environments: from knowledge to sustainable exploitation of new resources under growing pressures
• Essential psychological and social concepts for collective response
• Nitrogen: too much of a good thing