Active8-Planet project and Amsterdam Sustainability Institute are organizing lecture series highlighting each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are interviewing prominent and brand new scientist on their work in a specific SDG in 17 different sessions. We are challenging them to translate their academic research into practice and find the golden lining, upbeat and positive message to share with the world from their work. Check out some snippets below.
SDG Academy
Climate change is the basic condition
Prof. Philipp Pattberg – Director of Amsterdam Sustainability Institute:
“Climate change is the basic condition under which everything else will develop.”
What really frustrates young people
Tessa Dool – Board member Jonge Klimaatbeweging:
“Young people are becoming increasingly aware and want the changes to happen, but they’re just not happening yet.”
We can still choose our future
Bart van den Hurk – Lead Author of the 6th IPCC Assessment Report (WG-I):
“We display multiple scenarios with multiple futures that lie ahead of us that we can still choose.”
Universities and leadership
Ivar Maas – Lead Sustainability at the VU:
“Universities should show leadership and show that it is possible to make those changes, and to lead by example.”
We have to use less energy
Philipp Pattberg – Director Amsterdam Sustainability Institute:
“Any of the broad projections that we have globally to the 1.5 degree future is with more energy efficiency and actually the same demands that we have today in 2050, which means – we have to use less energy.”
The solution is coming together
Rooske Gaal – Energy Coordinator CCE VU-VUmc:
“If we get our energy consumption smaller, the percentage we would get with our own solar would be bigger, so I think that the solution is coming together.”
The VU is not a bubble
Dan Petrovics – Junior Researcher VU:
“The VU is not a bubble, it’s not an island. It’s situated in a city, it’s situated in a neighborhood. What we see, I think, going with decentralizing energy systems is that different elements have to start co-operating.”
Battling hope
Yuv Sungkur – Master student of Political Science at VU Amsterdam:
A big issue that I have with COP 26 is the lack of the representation of the people from SIDS (Small Island Developing States).
Philipp Pattberg – Director of Amsterdam Sustainability Institute:
This COP has delivered sufficiently to not lose hope.
Carbon Responsibilities
Xiaoran Li – PhD candidate at IVM/VU Amsterdam:
If it’s not certain, China will not raise it on the international stage
Stewart Motta – PhD candidate at IVM/VU Amsterdam:
Everything needs to be reduced to carbon emissions
It's all about people's experience
Montserrat Koloffon – PhD candidate at IVM/VU Amsterdam:
Seeing in practice what I already knew in theory
Cornelia Fast – PhD candidate at IVM/VU Amsterdam:
It’s humans working on this as well
Every step in a circular flow is taxed
Henriette Scholte – PhD Researcher Circular Economy and Taxation:
Different from a linear flow, every step in a circular flow is taxed.
Repurposing the tax system often leads to inequality
Jan Gooijer – Assistant Professor of Tax Law at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam:
Repurposing the tax system often leads to inequality
The transition towards sustainability also needs good legal advice
Philipp Pattberg – Director of Amsterdam Sustainability Institute:
The transition towards sustainability also needs good legal advice
We should start as soon as possible
Prof. Elin Lerum Boasson – University of Oslo:
We should start as soon as possible.
One individual can make tremendous change
Prof. Elin Lerum Boasson – University of Oslo:
One individual can make tremendous change
Are there any universal solutions?
Dr. Dave Huitema – professor of Environmental Policy at the IVM:
Are there any universal solutions?