Work

Quantifying the gap from scientific evidence to environmental policy and implementation across scales

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Assessing key dimensions of the broader science-policy-implementation gap is crucial in an era of global environmental threats to human well-being. We quantify the time required for ecological concepts to be incorporated into United Nations environmental conventions and test whether concept age and typology influence their uptake. We also illustrate the effectiveness of environmental policies for biodiversity conservation. On average, the uptake of ecological concepts by the Conference of the Parties of the UN Conventions takes 7 years. While climate change conventions favor concepts related to structural and abiotic features, which reflects a focus on mitigation, the biodiversity and desertification conventions favor more idiosyncratic concepts, probably depending on the alignment of the scientific and political agendas on particular topics. Environmental policies have limited effectiveness, with better outcomes at local scales. Closing these gaps requires stronger implementation mechanisms and more effective identification and communication of scientific discovery across governance levels worldwide.

Source: Cell Reports Sustainability

DOI: 10.1016/j.crsus.2026.100831