Universities must help implement a global ¡°reset on the standards of honesty¡± if the world is to make progress on solving the most pressing problems, a renowned climate expert has claimed.

Mike Berners-Lee, professor in practice at the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University, said the ¡°high-quality decision-making that we need¡± to tackle issues such as the climate crisis and global conflict was ¡°being absolutely subverted by fundamental dishonesty in politics, media and business¡±.

This is the key reason why ¡°on balance, we are not getting anywhere¡± when it comes to solving these issues, he said, despite the fact ¡°we have the technology we need¡±.

¡°Unfortunately the bad things that are happening are outweighing the good things that are happening,¡± he said, citing the continued rise of greenhouse gas emissions as one prominent example.

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Speaking at the 51³Ô¹Ï 51³Ô¹Ï Sustainable Development Congress in Istanbul, he called for ¡°an absolute reset on the standards of honesty¡±, to the point where ¡°if anybody in the system is trying to make other people believe things that are untrue, then we have to find a way of taking them out of the system¡±.

He said higher education had ¡°a massive role¡± to play in this, ¡°by having integrity itself, by helping students to have really high critical thinking skills so that they are very, very good at discerning fact from fiction, and by doing the kind of big thinking that the world needs now¡±.

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Berners-Lee, author of the books There is No Planet B and A Climate of Truth, said another vital change needed is ¡°universal respect¡±.

¡°We need a level of international cooperation on this stuff that we¡¯ve never achieved before. For that we¡¯re going to need international understanding, international respect,¡± he said.

This is also an area where the role of higher education is ¡°absolutely huge¡± because universities have ¡°people from all over the world, people from different cultures¡±.

¡°It's absolutely critical that they are places where people can learn to understand each other, understand each other¡¯s world views, respect each other¡¯s world views,¡±?Berners-Lee told the congress.

¡°At the university I come from¡­we have people from all over the world but I¡¯m always slightly regretful that we don¡¯t do enough to really bring them together so they understand each other and bridge the cultural gaps.¡±

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When asked whether the pursuit of endless economic growth ¨C even green growth ¨C is incompatible with sustainability, Berners-Lee said that the world has ¡°entered the Anthropocene era¡±, a term used to refer to the time during which humanity has become a planetary force of change. This requires organisations and nations to ¡°exercise a level of care that we¡¯ve never needed to exercise before¡± and to move away from an economic framework in which GDP growth is the central metric of success.

However, he said that this does not necessarily rule out growth in the right areas, suggesting that ¡°we can even afford to grow our education system massively as long as it¡¯s doing the right kind of thinking and helping generations to come through to be able to think in an Anthropocene-fit way.¡±

Ultimately, Berners Lee said, ¡°a whole load of deep systemic change¡± is necessary, but he remains optimistic because such change is ¡°possible¡± and ¡°universities¡­are the places where we think¡±.

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¡°It¡¯s the places where we do the thinking that the world requires. And the critical thinking is: how can we together solve these deep systemic challenges that we¡¯ve got¡­The reality is if we don¡¯t wake up, we are careering into a crisis that¡¯s going to bite us very badly indeed. The optimism is that we can wake up, but it¡¯s not business as usual.¡±

He added that higher education institutions are ideal ¡°points of leverage¡± for major change.

¡°In our kind of individualistic culture that maybe we¡¯ve got, it¡¯s tempting to think that if we can¡¯t solve the problem on our own then what we¡¯re doing isn¡¯t useful. That¡¯s not the case at all,¡± he said.

¡°We solve this problem collectively and universities and higher education institutions are¡­exemplars, they¡¯re places where the great thinking goes on, they are places where people come through and they learn how to think and they learn their values and they develop their values. So enormous points of leverage.¡±

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ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com