Global environmental change is a potentially catastrophic and increasingly urgent problem for humanity. It is relevant to individuals, organisations and governments everywhere. But what exactly makes it so? How is the world changing around us, and how and where can the course and conditions of such change be altered? What role can and must the social sciences play in such efforts? These are the “big picture” questions tackled in Part 1, questions that expose the complexity and urgency of global environmental change, and locate it at the centre of the quest to secure a sustainable future for all.

Why worry about the global environment? Are the financial crisis and poverty not far more urgent? And will technological innovation not solve global warming? Looking at problems as separate and discrete can be misleading. Global environmental changes are systemic issues that are closely related to human activities. The solutions thus lie in human actions that address the systems and structures that contribute to global environmental change. Are broader and deeper understandings needed to ensure transformative action?

The challenge of sustainable development will soon be enshrined in a new set of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Like the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) before them, they are likely to constitute an active work programme for governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), businesses and academia. The social sciences will have a key role to play in designing and assessing critical pathways to achieve the new goals.

Rapid environmental change in the face of enduring poverty and social inequality has brought unprecedented attention to the challenge of achieving social equity and environmental sustainability, at all levels from the local to the global. There is a clear need for conceptual approaches that enable these challenges to be addressed together, so that options for pathways to equitable and sustainable development can be identified and debated. The concept of social and planetary boundaries, integrated with the three “Ds” agenda – direction, diversity and distribution – provides one such framework. This can be used to identify alternative pathways and inform consideration of their social and political implications.

Inclusive wealth aims to measure the natural, human and manufactured capital of nations. Understanding changes in this productive capital base provides guidance to policymakers on the sustainability of economic welfare.

Whether assessing the impact of environmental degradation and climate change, or building effective governance institutions, rigorous gender analysis will deepen and broaden our understanding of environmental problems, and help find relevant, effective, equitable solutions.

Society must adapt and learn to live in a world that is 4°C warmer. Many encourage profound changes in the way society is organised and responds to change, often using the language of transformation. How is transformation understood in the context of environmental change? What can be learned from a case study of transformative social and political change? The authors identify challenges for social science to inform, guide and reflect critically on the transformation concept, and to contribute to debates on reshaping society to cope with environmental change.

The world’s current problems call for better thinking about the future. While model-based and data-driven scenarios have their place, there is scope for people and organisations to use a freer anticipatory approach – the emerging discipline of anticipation – or futures literacy, which can help reduce fear of the unknown, and is a more systematic and accurate way of using the future to understand the present.

In the new open knowledge landscape, social scientists have a unique opportunity to take on a more influential role in accelerating global sustainability learning and transformation. Decisions concerning sustainability are not to be made by policymakers or experts alone, but by different knowledge holders organised around context-specific needs and transdisciplinary practices.

Open knowledge and learning are spreading across the world and across domains from science to political power. This shift opens up the possibility for citizens, experts, children and others to work together in new ways for their own benefit, for the benefit of others, and for the good of the planet as a whole.