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Expert Consultation on Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on Asia and the Pacific Engaging Academia and the Research Community – Science, Society and Sustainability Lawrence Surendra Chairman The Sustainability Platform Institution of Engineers, India Change in the Science and Technology landscape and the opportunities for redirecting S&T investments for SD Agenda work. First and foremost, cheap and easy access to new digital technologies such as broadband, Internet and mobile phones have accelerated the diffusion of best-practice technologies, revolutionized the internal and external organization of research and facilitated the implantation abroad of companies’ research and development (R&D) centres (David and Foray, 2002). However, it is not only the spread of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) that has shifted the balance in favour of a more transparent and more level playing field. The changing landscape and opportunities Secondly, countries have been catching up rapidly in terms of both economic growth and investment in knowledge, as expressed by investment in tertiary education and R&D. This can be observed in the burgeoning number of graduates in science and engineering. India, for example, has opted to establish 30 new universities to raise student enrollment from less than 15 million in 2007 to 21 million by 2012. Large emerging developing countries such as Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa are also spending more on R&D than before. How can these new investments in education and R&D can be connected to SD Goals Sustainability - Where are we? To cover the ground that we may have covered but as a Recap perhaps! In 1972, when the Club of Rome made public its famous `Limits to Growth' thesis, positing limits to economic growth in terms of scarcity of resources, resource economists and others showed the fallacies involved and how resource limits could be overcome. The real paradigm shift had to me made with regard to nature as a sink; especially, as we have reached and are pushing the limits of our atmosphere. As globe-warming and ozone-depleting gases, threaten the very future of the planetary ecosystem. Sink limits are absolute! This leaves us with no other choice but to address the central problem and deal with the scale of our "growth", "the physical size of the economy relative to the containing ecosystem", as the eminent ecological economist Herman Daly has put it, thus beautifully capturing the relationship of the economy to nature and the dilemma we are in. Our Common Future – Collective Human Suicide? Academia has a critical role and duty to work with policy makers and by influencing public policy and bring together: the natural sciences (ecosystems and sinks), the social sciences (peace and equity) and society (participation and empowerment). UN-ESCAP can work with agencies such as UNESCO and UNEP need to act as catalysts to forge active partnerships and become a hub cross-national and sub regional partnerships in promoting Science for Sustainability. In Asia’s own interest ‘Ecological Sustainability and Economic Growth’ can and must be synergised. Some considerations for a road map Establish active, functioning partnerships with professional societies and bodies in the region for promoting the SDGs Work more proactively to establish knowledge partnerships with key Universities and key University networks in the region (UNEP-GUPES, ASEAN University Network, UNESCO’s Higher Education Network. UNESCO Natural Sciences Division in the Region) in promoting and implementing the 2030 SD Agenda and re-orienting curricula and build on the UNDESD/ESD and prioritise funding and activity for knowledge partnerships and platforms. (Emphasis on looking at the needs and contexts of sub-regions, small island states in promoting partnerships. Changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours (ESD Agenda) through networks in promoting activities such as Sustainable Campuses as part of concrete activity that can lead into implementation and creating policy and implementation environments for the 2030 SDG Agendas.