鈥淭HE days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts, we will be guided by them.鈥� With these words President Barack Obama did not only draw a line under the science-aversion of his predecessor, but also issued a wake-up call to Europe.
Even before he was sworn in, Obama had named the 鈥渄ream team鈥� of scientists he hoped would restore America鈥檚 standing in the world. His personal science adviser is , a professor of environmental policy at Harvard University whose expertise goes to the heart of climate change. Holdren will also co-chair the , along with Nobel laureate and former director of the National Institutes of Health, Harold Varmus, and Eric Lander, a major player in the effort to sequence the human genome.
These scientists will provide gold-standard advice, but Obama has gone even further, appointing top scientists into executive roles. Stephen Chu, Nobel laureate in physics, is the secretary of energy, running a $24 billion department. The distinguished environmental scientist Jane Lubchenco is to head the . In both advice and leadership, Obama has put scientists at the heart of his administration.
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This deserves celebration, but it should also serve as a wake-up call to the European Union. When comparing ourselves with the recalcitrant Bush administration, it wasn鈥檛 hard to look good. Europe could justly claim to be leading the world with its sound scientific basis for policies on such vital matters as climate change, food, water and energy.
鈥淐ompared with the Bush administration, the EU looked good. Now Obama has trumped our ace鈥�
But now Obama has trumped our ace. Compared with the new Washington line-up, European scientific advice suddenly looks deficient. There is the excellent , which provides scientific and technological support to the European Commission. But that is not the same as offering the sort of proactive, sometimes brutal, independent scientific advice that EU policy-makers need to hear.
The UK knows the benefits of having independent advisers who can state the science behind an issue. Our network of scientific advisers based in 17 government departments, working closely with me, has proved invaluable. Last year, for instance, when government targets for more biofuels clashed with growing concerns over sustainability and possible links to rising food prices, the scientific advisors for the affected departments stepped in to help review current policies. As a result, the rate at which biofuels were taken up slowed sharply.
Who can give this kind of advice routinely for the EU as a whole, though? At present the answer is a blank. The commission has no chief scientific adviser. Indeed, of all the member states only the UK and Ireland have one. Europe urgently needs a coordinated network of independent advisers at both the national and commission-wide levels.
When Obama announced his team he said this: 鈥淪cience holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It is time we once again put science at the top of our agenda.鈥� We in Europe would do well to follow suit.