Global Sustainable Development Congress
Bangkok, 10-13 June 2024
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The Times Higher Education Global Sustainable Development Congress (GSDC) will bring together 3000 global thought leaders and innovators to discuss urgent solutions to the sustainability emergency. Challenging the usual thinking on what higher education, governments, businesses and society must do to help society meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the congress is a call to action for global universities and businesses to pivot their educational, research, innovation and outreach programmes towards tangible outcomes.
UNSW is a content partner for the GSDC, which takes place in Bangkok, Thailand from 10-13 June 2024.
The congress will serve as a platform for discussing and advancing the SDGs on a global scale. UNSW staff who are passionate about sustainability and actively engaged or interested in SDG-related research, projects, and initiatives may wish to attend as part of the UNSW delegation.
To explore the full agenda, visit the Times Higher Education event website.
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UNSW is increasingly a trusted partner and source of expertise in the Asia Pacific and will participate as a content partner in the GSDC, sponsoring and leading two events – a roundtable and a workshop - which are being coordinated by the Institute for Global Development as a convenor of UNSW’s sustainable development expertise and regional partnerships to progress the SDGs.
UNSW's delegation leaders include:
- Professor Verity Firth AM, Vice-President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement
- Professor Rita Henderson, Chair of UNSW Sustainable Development Goals Steering Committee and Associate Dean (Equity & Diversity), UNSW Engineering
- Professor Bruce Watson, PVC Inclusion
- A. Professor George Varughese, Director, UNSW Institute for Global Development
- Professor Julien Epps, Dean, UNSW Engineering
More information on the two events is below.
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UNSW staff who would like to attend the congress can access discounted in person or virtual tickets using the discount code: UNSW25. Tickets are available on a first come first served basis. If staff wish to attend the congress in person or virtually, they should contact their Faculty SDG representative to discuss budget allocation from your local area.
Faculty SDG representative/s:
Faculty
Contact/s
Arts, Design & Architecture
Josh Wiesberger, Philip Oldfield
UNSW Business School
Nitika Garg, Rhiannon Tout
UNSW Canberra
Tom Arthur
Engineering
Rita Henderson, Bo Hedwards
Law & Justice
Bronwen Morgan
Medicine & Health
Sara Grafenauer, Emily Hogden
Science
Katie West
Please contact Meg Walker if you have any general questions about ticket access.
Two UNSW-hosted events
Roundtable: Water, energy, and food goals post 2030: Can carbon be the currency to a just world?
Tuesday 11 June, 12-1pm (UTC+7)
Sustainably meeting global water, energy and food (WEF) challenges requires aligning global CO2 emission pathways with WEF goals post-2030. With this comes the opportunity for social justice. The approach must bring together traditional knowledge and capacity across water-food systems and new technology uptake to satisfy growing national energy demands. Carbon mitigation must empower communities and traditional land practices to foster water, energy, and food security while supporting biodiversity and valuable ecological services.
Co-hosted by UNSW and the United Nations Development Coordination Office –Asia Pacific, this roundtable discusses lessons and approaches that align both WEF and carbon strategies in addressing global inequality.
Roundtable speakers
Professor Verity Firth AM
Vice-President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement, UNSW Sydney
David McLachlan-Karr
Regional Director for Asia-Pacific, United Nations Development Coordination Office in Asia-Pacific
Dr Andrew Dansie
Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead, Humanitarian Engineering, UNSW Engineering
Professor Cordelia Selomulya
Associate Dean - Research, UNSW Engineering
Professor Greg Leslie
Director, UNSW Global Water Institute
Michael Burnside
Manager, UNSW Sustainable Development Reform Hub
Workshop: The last urban migration and a post-SDG agenda for cities: What do we measure and for whom?
Wednesday 12 June, 12-1.30pm (UTC+7)
The Asia-Pacific region is home to almost half the world’s population. Its growing youth demographic and burgeoning middle class exemplify the rapid socio-economic and demographic shifts that constantly reshape cities. There is urgency around enabling city systems to transition at pace to respond to complex legacies of settlement, marginalisation and neglect. This workshop will bring together practitioners, scholars and those with lived experience from across the region to draw out priorities for a post-SDG agenda for cities. It will explore key stressors through the lens of intergenerational equity, Indigenous knowledge, policy drivers and the role of measurement that matters.
Workshop speakers
Professor Peter Poulet
Director, UNSW Cities Institute Convenor
Keziah Bennett-Brook
Program Head, The George Institute’s Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program
Thematic lead: Engagement and Power
Associate Professor Melissa Edwards
Research & Innovation Director, Centre for Social Impact UNSW
Thematic lead: Metrics that matter
Michael Rose AM
Chair, Committee for Sydney
Thematic Lead: Practice and Conceptualisation
Professor Ben Newell
Deputy Head, UNSW Science
Director, UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response
Thematic lead: Climate stressors
Dr Jinhee Kim
Scientia Fellow, UNSW Cities Institute
Thematic lead: Wellbeing
Questions
For any general enquiries please contact Rebecca Martin and Meg Walker.
