Taylor to help write roadmap for a sustainable planet

How can nations avert planetary catastrophe? Gail Taylor, chair of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, has been asked to help write a United Nations report offering practical ways to put Earth on a path to sustainability by 2050.

The U.N. Environmental Program has brought together hundreds of scientists from around the world to examine current national policies and offer action plans for tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, energy, pollution, waste and land degradation. The report, Global Environment Outlook, will be released in 2026.

“I am honored to be selected as a coordinating lead author of this important assessment of the state of our environment,” said Taylor, a distinguished professor and John B. Orr Professor of Environmental Plant Sciences. “I’ve been working on plants and environmental sciences for over three decades, and this feels like an important time to use that knowledge to deliver real-world solutions for a sustainable, equitable future.”

In particular, the report aims to unravel why current policies are not keeping pace with the rate of environmental degradation faced today: None of the 17 sustainable development goals the United Nations adopted in 2015 are likely to be achieved by 2030. Those goals include ending poverty, hunger, inequity and injustice, ensuring sustainable economic growth and fighting climate change.

Agriculture has an important role to play in solving these problems, but the sector creates problems, too: erosion, habitat loss and pollution, and about one-quarter of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to global warming.

“We need to find solutions for a more sustainable future, including reducing the environmental impact of agriculture by two-thirds,” Taylor said.

The scientists hope their report would guide national leaders as they move toward a world with a stable climate, that is rich in nature and produces near-zero waste, while supporting economies that are sustainable for both current and future generations.

Taylor is among more than 120 experts engaged for the report, selected from more than 700 applicants. Their first meeting took place in Bangkok in March 2023. Their report, GEO-7, will be released at the U.N. Environment Assembly in February 2026. It will be the seventh edition of the UNEP’s report since 1995.