As COP30 concludes, one message has echoed across the Blue and Green Zones, the Planetary Science Pavilion, the media and civil society: STEMM professionals are essential to the future, but they are still not shaping decisions at the level the world urgently needs.
Published: Nov 20, 2025
Scientists, technologists, engineers, mathematicians and medical professionals form one of the largest and most influential workforces globally. Their knowledge underpins climate adaptation, public health, biodiversity protection, energy transitions and responsible AI governance.
Yet COP30 made it impossible to ignore that expertise alone is not translating into the influence necessary for global implementation.
Countries are already preparing their bids for COP31, and the need is growing clearer: we need STEMM leaders who can influence outcomes, build trust, work across cultures and turn complexity into decisions that serve people and planet.
This is why we created the STEMM Influence Lab.
“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.”
— Carl Sagan
Technical mastery is vital, but COP30 demonstrated that effective climate and planetary leadership requires much more. STEMM professionals are being asked to:
These are inner capacities, not technical ones. And they are rarely taught in formal STEMM pathways.
The new Inner Development Guide offers a practical framework to build these capacities. The STEMM Influence Lab brings this work into a STEMM context for the first time.
NB: For a broader reflection on the role science has played in shaping humanity, including both its extraordinary contributions and its involvement in extraction, harm to the planet and impacts on Indigenous cultures, as well as a more holistic and regenerative vision for a future that works for everyone, read more here: Reflection Paper on STEMM and COP30.
The Lab is designed by STEMM leaders, for STEMM leaders. It supports professionals in strengthening the inner and relational foundations that allow expertise to become influence.
Participants build capacities in:
STEMM expertise does not have to be diluted to become influential. It needs to be supported, translated and embodied in ways that others can understand, trust and act upon.
As COP30 closes and momentum builds toward COP31, STEMM professionals worldwide are recognising that their knowledge is essential, but incomplete without the inner development that enables influence.
This is the work of the STEMM Influence Lab: to help technical minds grow into leaders who can shape outcomes sustainably and regeneratively.
The world needs STEMM influence. Not just STEMM expertise. The time is now.
Written by Dr Ruby Campbell
Positive Change - Evidence Based Development
Take the next step in defining your leadership skills investigating the inner capacities that underpin leadership effectiveness and reflecting on your leadership aspirations for systemic impact
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