The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the steepest global economic slow-down since World War II. Economic growth has declined, many businesses have fallen into bankruptcy, while unemployment and public debt has soared. The more vulnerable populations have suffered most from the devastating effects of the social and health crisis. There have been warnings from both epidemiologists and conservationists that the likelihood of further pandemics is high due to deforestation and other forms of habitat destruction that increase humans' risk of contracting additional zoonotic viruses.
While the pandemic has resulted in a decline in carbon emissions and a lighter human ecological footprint on the planet, this has not been enough to slow anthropogenic climate change. When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its 2018 report on the 1.5-degree climate target, it estimated a remaining window of only 12 years (until 2030) to establish effective climate change mitigation measures. This leaves only a narrow and rapidly closing window for governments to introduce economic stimulus packages and more humane governance models to promote a durable post-pandemic green economic recovery.
Lessons learned from the pandemic provide a vital opportunity to reorganize development models locally and globally, to move towards bottom-up governance structures that are more just, equitable, and inclusive, and that value environmental intelligence to address the sustainability challenges of the planet.
This conference -- a collaboration between Common Ground Research Networks, the On Sustainability Research Network, and the University of Granada -- seeks paper proposals and contributions from a wide variety of stakeholders, including scholars, educators, business, environmental activists, government policymakers, and local politicians and organizations on how a decarbonized economic transition can be catalysed and implemented at scale. We call for abstracts that explore best practices, identify barriers to change and how they are overcome, and propose innovative, interdisciplinary sustainability solutions.
Professor of Environmental Policy, The Open University, United Kingdom
(English)
Professor, Educational Research Methodology, Faculty of Science Education, Universidad de Granada, Spain
(Spanish)
Professor, Educational Research Methodology, Faculty of Science Education, Universidad de Granada, Spain
The Eighteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability featured plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field.
Professor, Department of Ecology, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
"De las Lecciones Aprendidas en 40 Años de EA en España a Identificar Nuevas Sendas por las que Transitar Hacia el Futuro"
Professor, Department of Ecology, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
"La Educación Ante la Emergencia Climática: ¿Qué Implica Educar para 1,5°C?"
Commissioner for Sustainable Development and Future Generations, HM Government of Gibraltar
"Promising Futures: A Decade of Disruption for Sustainable Development in Higher Education"
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism, University of Aveiro, Portugal
"Towards Sustainability: All Together and Forward for Nature, People, and Planet"
Professor, Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), Mato Grosso, Brazil
"Climate Collapse, Post-Pandemic and Environmental Education"
Professor, Institute for Environmental Studies, the Netherlands
"Accelerating the Sustainability Transformation in Times of Global Uncertainty"
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Researches in Education, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico
"Colapso Ecológico y Emergencia Climática: ¿Cisnes Negros o Crisis del Capitalismo? Los Desafíos de la Educación Ambiental del Siglo XXI"
For each conference, a small number of Emerging Scholar Awards are given to outstanding graduate students and emerging scholars who have an active research interest in the conference themes. The Award, with its accompanying responsibilities, provides a strong professional development opportunity for early career academics. The 2022 Emerging Scholar Award Recipients are listed below.
Silpakorn University,Thailand
Oregon State University, USA
Oak Ridge National Lab, USA
University of Alberta, Canada
DSKD, Denmark
Keele University, England
Oregon State University, USA
The Open University, UK
Global Sustainability Institute, Cambridge, UK
University of British Columbia, Canada
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
IIT Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India
University of Valle, Cali, Colombia
Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Granada, Spain
