Public and private investment in science, education and training, and research and development should be increased significantly, with emphasis on the need to ensure equal access to opportunities for girls and women.

1nternational consensus-building is facilitated by the availability of authoritative scientific evidence. There is a need for further scientific cooperation, especially across disciplines, in order to verify and strengthen scientific evidence and make it accessible to developing countries. This evidence is important for assessing environmental conditions and changes. Steps should also be taken by Governments, academia, and scientific institutions to improve access to scientific information related to the environment and sustainable development. Promotion of existing regional and global networks may be useful for this purpose.

Increasing efforts to build and strengthen scientific and technological capacity in developing countries is an extremely important objective. Multilateral and bilateral donor agencies and Governments, as well as specific funding mechanisms, should continue to enhance their support for developing countries. Attention should also be given to countries with economies in transition.

The international community should also actively collaborate to promote innovations in information and communication technologies for the purpose of reducing environmental impacts, inter alia, by taking user-needs based approaches to technology transfer and cooperation.