PAS President Prof. Joachim von Braun

Welcome, dear Academicians and Guests, to this Bi-Annual Plenary of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. A special welcome and warm congratulations to our newly elected members. We look forward to your lifelong contributions to the mission and work of our Academy.

It has become increasingly evident that humanity exerts a profound impact on the Earth’s systems. The Anthropocene, understood as the growing and lasting human influence on the global environment, was identified by our esteemed PAS Academician Paul Crutzen (1933-2021), with related significant insights from another PAS Academician, Mario Molina (1943-2020). The PAS has already addressed Anthropocene-related issues in various workshops.[1] However, as its consequences grow more severe for nature and people, particularly in terms of climate crisis and biodiversity loss, this Plenary seeks to engage with the topic in a more comprehensive manner.

In parallel, this Plenary explores emerging new science and innovations, in particular Artificial Intelligence, and related opportunities for science and planetary health, while also considering regulatory frameworks to mitigate risks. Through a series of targeted briefings, the Plenary invites the entire Academy to engage in forward-looking discussions on key scientific domains, to help shape our future Agenda. These interdisciplinary conversations are at the core of our Academy’s raison d’être.

On September 23, 2024, His Holiness Pope Francis graciously addressed our Academy. It turned out to be his final formal message to us, and it carried profound significance.[2] He remarked: “All of us are increasingly troubled by humanity’s deep impacts on nature and the earth systems. I have learned that one of you, Paul Crutzen, in describing these impacts on created nature, referred to them collectively as constituting the Age of the Anthropocene. Members of your Academy were thus among the first to identify the cumulative impact of human activities on creation and to study its related risks and problems. Indeed, the Anthropocene is revealing its increasingly dramatic consequences for nature and for human beings, especially through the climate crisis and loss in biodiversity. I am grateful, then, that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences continues to focus concern on issues such as these, not least with regard to their implications for the poor and the disadvantaged… Your Plenary Assembly this year also addresses emerging new science and innovations, and related opportunities for science and planetary health. Here I think particularly of the challenges posed by the progress made in Artificial Intelligence. Such development can prove beneficial to humanity, for instance by advancing innovations in the fields of medicine and health care, as well as by helping to protect the natural environment and enabling the sustainable use of resources in the light of climate change. Yet, as we realize, it can also have serious negative implications for the general population, especially children and more vulnerable adults.” Pope Francis concluded with these words: “…at a time when crises, wars and threats to world security seem to prevail, your own quiet contributions to the progress of knowledge in the service of our human family are all the more important for the cause of global peace and international cooperation. I thank you for your participation in the work of the Academy and offer you my prayerful good wishes for the deliberations of the present Plenary Assembly.”

The Anthropocene is the age we live in, marked by profound imprints of human activities on nature through industrialization, fossil fuel dependency, nuclear technologies, urbanization, consumerism, and communication technologies, among others. Unlike previous geological periods, we argue that the Anthropocene cannot be defined solely by geological markers.

Sciences and the Anthropocene are interrelated. Science is not independent from the forces that shape the Anthropocene. In fact, scientific innovations are among the key drivers of the Anthropocene, through modern energy systems reliant on fossil fuels, global transportation networks via land, sea and air, construction industries based on steel and concrete, consumer goods, including electronics with rare earth elements, and agricultural and land-use related innovations, all contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and ecosystems degradation.

Climate change is at the core of the Anthropocene. Notably, during our climate resilience summit with scientists, governors and mayors, Pope Francis took the unusual step of signing our call to action.[3] As a follow-up, we are currently rolling out regional climate resilience summits across hemispheres,[4] which is an unprecedented initiative for PAS.

Yet, science and innovations are progressing and serve human betterment by providing opportunities to mitigate and manage the Anthropocene. Advances in life and medical sciences have dramatically improved child survival, longevity and disease management. These achievements have contributed to population growth, expanded consumption, and wellbeing. Yet, in turn, these trends have increased environmental pressures. Scientific advancements from the past have often been retrospectively recognized as contributing to the root causes of the Anthropocene.  

We embrace a comprehensive approach to scientific inquiry. In this Plenary we have continued to advance our exploration of the rich insights that emerge from the braiding of indigenous knowledge and the sciences. Recently, the Academy hosted a landmark conference with indigenous knowledge communities, possibly the first of its kind convened by a scientific academy.[5] We remain committed to pursuing this integrative approach in the current Plenary and beyond, respectfully linking our Academy with traditional and indigenous knowledge holders to address the multifaceted challenges of the Anthropocene.

The relationship between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Anthropocene may deepen in the future. Since our 2019 conference on Robotics and AI, which resulted in a book that is still in demand,[6] the field has evolved rapidly. Contemporary and future science face the dual challenge of mitigating the adverse effects of the Anthropocene while helping humanity to adapt to its realities. While ethical dilemmas arising from science-based innovations are not new, AI introduces unprecedented ethical complexities due to its profound and uncertain impact on society and innovation processes. We are called to examine developments in AI and other innovations not only as accelerators of Anthropocene dynamics, but also as potential instruments to augment human intelligence in the pursuit of a sustainable Anthropocene.

AI is already transforming science disciplines such as chemistry, physics, biology, life sciences, and medicine. Quantum physics and computing may offer further breakthroughs capable of redirecting the Anthropocene onto sustainable pathways. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences has long engaged with these themes through consultations, publications, and public statements.  This includes responses to pandemics, chronic diseases, stem cell research, cancer, neurotechnology, and humanitarian and food crises. And our Academy maintains a strong interest in frontier science related to Astronomy. We identified specific science opportunities in each of these areas and issued related statements urging policy and societies to act.[7] The 2024 Plenary Session draws on the insights from these workshops and places them within the broader context of science and science diplomacy opportunities.  

The 2024 Plenary Session partly builds upon these insights, placing them within the broader framework of science diplomacy. Our Academy remains actively engaged in addressing science scepticism in policy, society and media.[8] I am grateful that the final session provided the opportunity to engage with a group of outstanding international science policy leaders on science policy perspectives related to the themes of the Anthropocene and AI.

We affirm the critical importance of basic science in understanding and addressing the complex processes of the Anthropocene. Curiosity-driven basic research continues to yield big payoffs that often come about in unpredictable ways, mostly in the long term, but increasingly within shorter timeframes. Purposeful science is equally relevant, particularly its contributions to peace, which Pope Francis emphasized as a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable development.

In closing, I would like to point out that our Plenaries are unique opportunities for Academicians and guests to interact and engage in meaningful interdisciplinary dialogue. Together, we explore scientific frontiers and global perspectives, shaping the agenda for a more just, peaceful and sustainable future.

[1] Sessions and workshops related to Anthropocene issues:

• Resilience of People and Ecosystems under Climate Stress. Workshop | 13-14 July 2022;
• Science and Survival. A Focus on SARS-CoV-2 and Connections Between Large-Scale Risks for Life on This Planet and Opportunities of Science to Address Them. Plenary Session | 7-9 October 2020;
• Science and Sustainability. Impacts of Scientific Knowledge and Technology on Human Society and its Environment. Plenary Session | 25-29 November 2016;
• Climate Change, Health of the Planet and Future of Humanity. Workshop | 15 November 2018;
• Biological Extinction: How to Save the Natural World on Which We Depend. Workshop | 27 February – 1 March 2017

[2] See the complete address in this volume and at https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2024/september/documents/20240923-plenaria-accademia-scienze.html

[3] From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience https://www.pas.va/en/events/2024/climate_resilience.html

[4] From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience – A series of global and regional Climate Resilience Summits jointly organized by the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences https://www.pas.va/en/events/2025/climate_resilience_summits.html

[5] Indigenous Knowledge and the Sciences. https://www.pas.va/en/events/2024/indigenous_peoples.html

[6] Robotics, AI, and Humanity: Science, Ethics, and Policy. Workshop | 16-17 May 2019 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-54173-6

[7] See www.pas.va for details on these workshops held in 2022-2024:

• Reconstructing the Future for People and Planet (9-10 June 2022)
• Health of the Seas and Oceans (8 June 2022)
• Strategies to Decrease Inequalities in Cancer Therapeutics, Care, Prevention (23-24 February 2023)
• Food crises: Science and policies to prevent and overcome food crises (9-10 May 2023)
• Quantum Science and Technology (22-25 November 2023)
• Neurotechnology: Ethical and societal implications of recent advances (13-14 December 2023)
• Astrophysics: James Webb Space Telescope: from first light to new world views (27-29 February 2024)
• Indigenous Peoples Knowledge and the Sciences (PAS and PASS, 14-15 March 2024)

[8] Statement | Protecting Freedom of Science and Preventing Distortion of Scientific Truth | 16 June 2025 https://www.pas.va/en/events/2025/statement_of_concern.html