Chemistry and global challenges

The world faces huge challenges in the coming decades. It’s not just about climate change, it’s about the environment more generally and how societies must learn to do everything sustainably and although many of the changes we’ll need to make will be social and economic, there are many technological challenges which will have to be addressed. Chemistry will play a critical role in almost all of them, so it is essential to ensure that the subject is seen as an attractive study choice. It is therefore a concern that applications to study chemistry at university have declined significantly in recent years but whatever the reasons for this decline, it is our contention that chemistry curricula at every level should and must reflect the central contribution the discipline will make in addressing these and other global challenges such as healthcare. We do not imply that the contextual basis of chemistry is absent from current curricula, not at all, but we argue here for a much more broadly-based context within which the subject should be taught and one which highlights the problems we still need to solve. What follows are a few examples of topics which: (a) require a solution, (b) will hopefully inspire the young and (c) should be part of the general knowledge of graduating chemists even if they choose to pursue other careers.