News

Announcing the European Green Deal in December 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined an aim “to reconcile the economy with our planet, to reconcile the way we produce and the way we consume with our planet and to make it work for our people.” Research undertaken through the MAGIC project over the past four years...

Several MAGIC researchers presented project results at the virtual Dresden Nexus Conference (eDNC 2020) that took place from 03-05 June 2020 under the theme “Circular Economy in a Sustainable Society”. Juan Cadillo Benalcazar, from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), presented an evolutionary analysis of the role of the agri-food...

The MAGIC team from the James Hutton Institute ran a virtual workshop with members of the European Environmental Agency (EEA) and EEA Topic Centres on Tuesday 2nd June 2020. Lasting 90 minutes, the workshop consisted of two parts. First, an introduction to our Quantitative Story Telling (QST) methodology, illustrating the promise of societal...

With the world’s attention focussed on Covid-19, issues that were in the forefront of public concern just a few months ago seem to have magically disappeared. "When can we return to normal?" is the question that many are asking. But even if we could return to normal, should we?          Mario Giampietro and Silvio Funtowicz, based on years...

Governing in the nexus Over the last 4 years, the MAGIC team has engaged with policy-makers in the European Commission, European Parliament, national and local governments, establishing a dialogue about the challenges that the nexus poses to governance. Some recurrent questions are: How can we make sure that improvements in one area (say, support...

A team of MAGIC researchers presented the project in a special session entitled "Governing the water-energy-food-nexus: Governance in complexity" at the International Seminar on Environment and Society—Current Challenges and Pathways to Change, which was held from 2-3 March 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal. In this panel, organized and chaired by...

MAGIC, in the person of Raimon Ripoll Bosch (Wageningen University), actively participated in the Inaugural World Biodiversity Forum in Davos, Switzerland, from 23 – 28 February 2020.  The inaugural forum was organised by bioDISCOVERY, a Global Research Project (GRP) of FutureEarth, fostering collaborative interdisciplinary activities on...

The seventh edition of the Energy Congress of Catalonia (COENERCAT 2020)–'Energia i Emergència Climàtica' was held on 14 and 15 February 2020 at the Institut d'Estudis Catalans in Barcelona, and focused on climate emergency and the factors that influence CO2 emissions, as well as on how these issues affect the design of the energy model of...

MAGIC coordinator Mario Giampietro gave a striking 'ExPhil' talk at the 2020 SDG Conference in Bergen under the provocative title "Sustainable Development Goals and Technical Innovations: Can we escape the fate of cyborg salmons?"  The keynote was part of the session "Technology, Innovation and Industrial Transformation: torchlight for...

A systems perspective on sustainable agriculture – the new ‘MAGIC’ approach | European Parliament | Brussels | 30 January 2020  Sheila Ritchie, MEP of the Renew Europe Group and member of the AGRI Committee hosted a ‘MAGIC’ breakfast at the European Parliament in Brussels. The meeting explored how MAGIC can bring a new approach to...