The objectives of the symposium are to share research findings, prioritized solutions, and key tradeoffs as well as to identify synergies with other SDGs, from the three target countries (Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa). In advance of TICAD VII, this event will build a platform for all participants, including private-sector actors and youth, to exchange and share their experiences and ideas towards achieving the SDGs in Africa.

※The event will be held in ENGLISH only. No interpretation will be provided.

Registration

For more details and registration, please visit the UNU-IAS website.

What is the Sleeping Financial Giants Initiative?

The Royal Swedish Academy* and The Stockholm Resilience Center (Stockholm University), together with Future Earth, aim to build a scientific research base and dialogue platform for the sustainability of the Earth by encouraging cooperation between the Earth System and finance sector. Recognizing the opportunity of Professors Will Steffen and others to come to Japan, we held lectures and workshops for the first time in Asia, starting dialogue and collaboration between the academic and finance sectors.

* The Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere programme (GEDB) at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Sponsors: Vinnova, Futura Foundation, the Erling-Persson Family Foundation, and Mistra
Co-organizers: University of Tokyo Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)

Event Summary

Sleeping Financial Giants Public Symposium

Program

For more details and registration, please refer to the official event page.

Since the adoption at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been attracting wider attention year by year. Held at the University of Tokyo where Japanese cutting-edge knowledge is brought together, this symposium aims to encourage Japanese young generations to open up their mind towards the global issues and to present that Japan can greatly contribute to achieving SDGs from the perspective of innovation. High-level representatives from academia, international organizations and private sector will be assembled to share their views and ideas on SDGs in their presentations and panel discussions.

Participation is free and registration is not required.

For more details, please refer to the event flyer from the link below.
Download the event flyer

Questions to be addressed

• How to communicate/deal with risks such as tipping points
  and/or uncertainty
• How to mainstream climate change/environmental issues in
  the mass media Impacts of visualization
• How to link local and global initiatives/actions
• How to utilize social media to communicate complex ideas
  effectively
• Basic rules of communications in global sustainability-based
  research

Each year at least 1.5m scientific papers are published worldwide. How many of these research results are shared with the public and actually contribute to the society? In general, academia faces barriers in how to interact and engage with other sectors and stakeholders to form effective collaborations. The role of communications in a scientific project is so crucial to connect different stakeholders and for the project to be seen and contribute to society. This workshop is designed to develop a communications/outreach package for scientific research. We invite communications experts to the workshop, who will share their know-how and ideas on how to design effective and innovative outreach projects. Below are the sample projects to be developed during the workshop.

For more information, please see the flyer from the link below.
Download event flyer

Note: The event is only for invited.

The 7th ICSS will focus on new knowledge generation and integration to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how this knowledge is implemented by society.

The conference will have two types of sessions:
1. SDG Labs (open call)
2. Future Earth Knowledge Action Networks (invitation)

At the 2015 United Nations General Assembly, 193 UN member states unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a global development agenda that lays out 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. The SDGs, which came into effect in January 2016, are a universal set of goals, targets and indicators that set out quantitative objectives across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Addressing critical sustainability issues such as poverty, climate change, inequality, economic development and ecosystem protection, the SDGs will be implemented in all countries, across different territorial scales. (Addressing critical sustainability issues such as poverty, climate change, inequality, economic development and ecosystem protection, sustainable natural capital management for the future is the first measure for implementing SDGs in all countries, across different territorial scales.)

The conference ICSS 2017 – “Global Goals – new approaches to knowledge generation -challenges and solutions from local to global scales” will be the first larger international conference that will bring together the academic research community with other stakeholders to address the challenges of implementing the Global Goals. The conference will be designed to 1) analyse mechanisms for new knowledge generation and mechanisms for integrating knowledge (anchored in natural capital management) to support the implementation of the (broad set of) Global Goals and 2) to further develop interactive interfaces among the global Future Earth research community and networks in the context of analysing and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals with special focus on managing natural capital.

The three-day conference will include a day on policy and co-design of questions involving policy makers and business representatives and be followed by sessions on how we develop answers and solutions to these questions. This work will be a critical contribution towards collaborative research between OECD countries. The conference will lead to publication through Sustainability Science and a Springer e-book designed for use by stakeholders.

• How can global companies integrate social and environmental agendas into corporate management — not only from a corporate social responsibility perspective, but in order to maintain competitiveness in the face of a global paradigm shift?
• How can environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment criteria be linked to the 2030 Agenda?

 
The event will be co-organized by United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability(UNU-IAS) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Japan (SDSN Japan), with the support of the Global Environmental Outreach Centre (GEOC), Nikkei Inc., the Global Compact Network Japan, and CDP.

Simultaneous interpretation will be available in Japanese and English.

To view the event programme, or to register, see the event announcement on the UNU-IAS website.

Since the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in September 2015, the global community has been exploring ways to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under this ambitious agenda. This symposium will examine how we should understand the SDGs; how to inspire young people to achieve the goals; and how government, science, and business can collaborate together. The latter half of the symposium will focus on the current conditions of oceans, what kinds of initiatives have been taken and will be possible, and how Japan can contribute to achieving the related SDGs.

Simultaneous interpretation will be available in Japanese and English.

To view the event programme, or to register, see the event announcement on the UNU-IAS website.