Can COVID-19 Revitalise the SDGs and Enhance the Post-2030 Sustainability Agenda?
- English (Simultaneous interpretation)
- SDGs
The COVID-19 crisis has caused tremendous suffering and loss. At the same time, it has also opened opportunities to reconsider solutions for threats to the health of the planet and its people. This reflection is particularly important for accelerating progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At present, no country is on track to achieve the SDGs before they expire by 2030. Greater reflection about COVID-19, as well as the past seven years of experience with the SDGs, should also inform thinking on how to improve the design of a possible post-2030 Sustainability Agenda (after the SDGs expire). The purpose of this session is to engage in an interactive dialogue on two questions:
How can policymakers, business people, civil society and other stakeholders turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity to accelerate progress on the SDGs?
What lessons from COVID-19 and the current SDGs could contribute to an ambitious post-2030 Agenda?
Research Leader, Integrated Sustainability Centre, IGES
Eric Zusman
Research Leader, Integrated Sustainability Centre, IGES
Eric Zusman is a Senior Policy Researcher and Area Leader at the Institute for Global Environmental Studies in Hayama, Japan. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mandarin Chinese from Rutgers University, a dual Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Asian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. For much of the past two decades, he has worked on environmental issues in Asia. This has included publishing articles and book chapters on water scarcity, air pollution regulation, environmental law, and state capacity in Greater China. He has also worked with China’s Yellow River Conservancy Commission and the Chinese Research Academy on Environmental Science. In addition, he has also held research assistantships with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum in Washington D.C., as well as Taiwan’s Academia Sinica. He is currently serving as a lead author for the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Chapter 17).
Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam
Johan Rockstrom
Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam
Johan Rockström is an international leading scientist on resilience, global sustainability and sustainable development.
He is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and a professor in earth system science at the University of Potsdam.
Earlier he was Director at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Executive Vice-President, Professor at the Institute for Future Initiative, Director for the Center for Global Commons, The University of Tokyo
ISHII Naoko
Executive Vice-President, Professor at the Institute for Future Initiative, Director for the Center for Global Commons, The University of Tokyo
Dr. ISHII Naoko has joined University of Tokyo on August 1st 2020 as professor, executive vice president, and inaugurating Director for Center for Global Commons, whose mission is to catalyze systems change so that human can achieve sustainable development within planetary boundaries. The Center aims at playing a much more active role in mobilizing movements of multi-stakeholders towards a shared goal of nurturing stewardship of Global Commons. Prior to joining the university, she served the GEF (Global Environment Facility) as CEO and Chairperson from 2012 to 2020. She formed GEF’s first mid-term strategy, GEF 2020, with strong focus on transformation of key economic systems.
She obtained BA in economics and Ph. D in international studies, both from the University of Tokyo.
