The report warns that ‘the world is not on track to achieve the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals or other internationally agreed environmental goals by 2030; nor is it on track to deliver long-term sustainability by 2050' (GEO 6 key messages). 

On the one hand, incremental change (e.g. the gradual improvement of resource efficiency) has serious limitations such as the time required to achieve significant results and the several types of rebound effect resulting from an increase in population and individual consumption. On the other hand, our understanding of the sustainability implications of current systemic changes in our transforming societies is very limited.

Thus, urgency to take action combined with the large scale societal changes call for new solutions in every sphere of our societies. To this end, we invited contributions, which either explore the sustainability implications of systemic changes in our societies and/or provide solutions to these challenges. Discussions will be organised along the traditional tracks of the conference based on the topic groups of ISDRS and a special track with a more concrete focus on transforming societies.