Download Expert Consultation on Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

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.