The international initiative PlantACT! (‘Plants for Climate Action!’) is carried out by plant biology scientists. As part of this undertaking, postulates were developed indicating how and in which areas researchers can contribute to finding immediate, medium-term and long-term solutions for climate, and what changes are necessary to implement these solutions at a personal, institutional and financial level.
On 3 February 2023, the journal ‘Trends in Plant Science’ published a white paper of the team formed during the symposium of the European Molecular Biology Organization ‘Molecular responses of plants facing climate change’, held in Montpellier, France in June 2022. The team includes Agata Daszkowska-Golec, PhD, DSc, Associate Professor from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Silesia.
In the report, members of PlantACT! propose several actions that may contribute to the achievement of these goals:
With the complexity of the effects of climate change on all levels of life on the planet, it is very unlikely that thinking in one scientific discipline alone will yield effective solutions. To meet the challenges of climate change, it is necessary to rethink and transform, among others, current research funding procedures and facilitating interdisciplinary projects. New forms of communication between different fields of knowledge and conferences (e.g. idea labs, workshops, field-based proposals) are needed to change the current culture of scientific exchanges in specific disciplines only.
It is equally important to find the right ways to get information to people who are able to develop the right methods of action – farmers, scientists and decision makers.
Suggested solutions must be verified not only in terms of carbon emissions, but also in terms of social and cultural impact. It is necessary to take into account the time constraints of the proposed methods of action (e.g. launching climate-adapted plant breeding programmes and introducing genes into elite plant varieties takes ten years) and compare them with measures that have immediate effects (e.g. changes in farming practices, resistance of plants to microorganisms). There is certainly no panacea for all of the problems, so it is necessary to adapt ideas depending on circumstances, needs and taking into account geographic and local contexts. For example, the implementation of one project may look different in the European Union and the USA, and differently in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the projected population growth in the 21st century will be the highest.
The time needed to develop plant-based climate solutions is running out fast. One of the main challenges is the current system of funding research grants in many countries, which causes delays of up to 12 months between submitting an idea and starting a project. There is an urgent need to redesign and speed up the evaluation, primary testing and deployment of plant-based methods.
The aim of PlantACT! is to create new interdisciplinary ways of doing things and to accelerate their implementation.
PlantACT! members are PhD students, young scientists and university researchers working in various fields of plant science. This is how they describe their activities: “We want to strengthen the links between academia, non-governmental organisations, media, industry and politicians to raise public awareness. Our approach is to create opportunities for people to share their knowledge and promote interdisciplinary research programmes”.
You can read the report on the website of the journal ‘Trends in Plant Science’.
Photo by Jackie DiLorenzo | Unsplash