Global Environmental Research Committee

Overview 

The Royal Society’s Global Environmental Research Committee, known as GERC, is a former Royal Society advisory group that was formed in 1998 and disbanded in 2024. GERC facilitated discussion on the major environmental issues of our time, linking with international research activity and informing the Royal Society’s policy work.

GERC’s science reviews

One way GERC carried out its work was by undertaking a rolling series of reviews of areas of science within its remit.

Subject areas covered recently include:

• Synthetic chemicals in the environment (report)
• How UK research can contribute to the UN Decade of Ocean Science -June 2021 (report)
• Technologies for ecological research - November 2020 (report)
• Biodiversity and climate change science - May 2020 (report)
• Carbon cycle science - November 2019 (report)
• Freshwater science - May 2019 (report)
• Polar science - November 2018 (report and associated blog)
• Ocean science - May 2018 report
• Geoengineering (report and associated blog)
• Air quality (report and associated blog)
• Biodiversity (report and associated blog)
• Natural resources (including land use) and food (report and associated blog)
• Climate (report and associated blog)

International programmes

GERC maintained the Royal Society’s connections (through a co-opted representative) to a number of international programmes including:

• Future Earth: GERC provides Royal Society representation on the UK Future Earth Committee
• The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)
• The Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) for which the Challenger Society is the affiliated body
• The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
• The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) 

GERC membership

Membership of GERC was drawn from the science community, including Fellows of the Royal Society.