Global Sustainable Development News

This summer, Dr. Stephanie Panichelli-Batalla, was awarded the Warwick Research Development Fund for her research on the Cuban international solidarity programme in Tanzania. This specific project is a collaboration with Dr. Virginie Grzelzyk (Aston University). The project will investigate how the concepts of aid and dignity underpin a distinctive approach to sustainable development in parts of the Global South, and explore how aid can turn into an agent of empowerment for recipient countries. Through an innovative and inter-disciplinary approach, both researchers will analyse the relationships between donor and recipient nations in South-South cooperation (SSC), amongst ODA countries, focusing particularly on the existing solidarity programmes between Cuba, the DPRK and the African continent. By analysing such relationships through qualitative and oral history interviews, this project will offer proposals on how these existing aid partnerships can be solidified and potentially streamlined in order for aid to be more effective, while also becoming a source of inspiration for other South-South and North-South cooperation relations.

Thursday 18 October 2018 | Zeeman MS01 | 6:15-9:30pm (prompt 6:30 start)

Come and celebrate sustainability at the University. The Warwick Sustainability Summit brings together students and staff with a passion for environmental sustainability. Through this event we aim to encourage different groups to collaborate on projects outside their specific fields. It's a chance to learn more about how the University, and everyone associated with it, are working towards making our campus more sustainable.

Following her summer internship, last week Seiwaa represented the SDG Advisory Unit of Ghana under the office of the President at the United Nations General Assembly.

Click on the title of this item to know more.

This Thursday 11 October 2018, we will be welcoming Dr. Maritza Carrasco-Marchessi. She will give a guest lecture entitled: “Chile 1973-1990: Memory, Oblivion and Uncertain Truths” in OC1.09 at 9.00am. Although this is linked to the module GD313: Human Rights and Social Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean, the lecture is open to all GSD and LA students.

Dr. Carrasco-Marchessi is an independent scholar who is currently working on how testimonies and the discourse of collective memory counterpoint and deconstruct those narratives built and established by the historical memory and the State. Her area of work is Post-dictatorial Chile and its transition to democracy during the late 80s and early 90s.

In her talk, she will string together her own testimony with those key historical events during the 17-year dictatorship in Chile and its transition to democracy. She will particularly focus on the discourse of denial and silence with which the State sought to cover up its systematic Human Rights abuse.

A new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that "we are already seeing the consequences of 1°C of global warming" and that "rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented change in all aspects of society" are required to avert further damage to ecosystems and human society. Approved in Incheon, South Korea on 6th October, the report contains over 6,000 citations and differentiates between the consequences of 1.5°C and 2°C warming. The authors aim to indicate that whilst actions are beginning to be taken to counteract and mitigate human impact on the world's climate and ecosystems, these would need to "accelerate". Global warming is also now judged to be rising by 0.2°C per decade.

The IPCC report comes two months before the Katowice Climate Change Conference in December, where governments will meet to review the Paris Agreement.

The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC is available here

Be inspired by Emma Kennedy, actress, writer, TV and radio presenter.

We are delighted to welcome Emma as our first inspiring women speaker for the 2018/19 academic year. Hear her personal journey, highlights and challenges along the way.

Emma was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford where she worked in comedy troupes. After graduating she trained and practiced as a solicitor, dramatically changing direction in her career after 3 years.

She became a script writer for Giedroye’s double act with Sue Perkins and worked as a writer for the Mel and Sue series Late Lunch. She presented the last series of The Real Holiday Show on Channel 4 in 2000. She has since made appearances in various TV shows Goodness Gracious Me, This Morning With Richard Not Judy (with Lee and Herring), Jonathan Creek alongside Alan Davies and Caroline Quentin, People Like Us (with Chris Langham) and hit BBC comedy The Smoking Room, along with appearing in several of The Mark Steel Lectures. as well as in several plays and radio shows. She was also a movie reviewer on Five's Terry and Gaby Show. In addition to this, she has made several appearances on Big Brother's Little Brother. Among other radio work, she was a regular on the BBC Radio 2 comedy That Was Then, This Is Now with Richard Herring.

Emma has written for radio, television and theatre, and has also written various children’s books. Her first book, How To Bring Up Your Parents came out in August 2007. Her second book, The Tent, The Bucket and Me, recounting her childhood camping experiences, was published in April 2009. This was adapted by Kennedy as writer of the six-part BBC TV series The Kennedys.

Register Here

0930 - 1400, 31st October 2018, Scarman, University of Warwick

To celebrate UN World Cities Day, the Sustainable Cities GRP is holding a half-day event to showcase cities research at Warwick. Besides offering the opportunity to hear more about the wide variety of research being undertaken in the cities space, this event will also offer the opportunity to advance university wide relationships and to learn more about research opportunities linked to cities.

This conference will:

• Explore Warwick’s research in the cities space
• Facilitate networking, discussion and collaboration between researchers and others keen to engage with and consider the new urban agenda and the challenges that cities face
• Identify areas where the Sustainable Cities GRP can support the development of new, interdisciplinary research at Warwick.

Join the conversation

Whether your research is in a field directly related to cities or you can see how it could be applied to cities, we would love you to join our conversation. We encourage students at all levels who share our interest in sustainable cities and have a desire to learn more about Warwick’s work in this area to register. We welcome attendance by those working in local, regional and national institutions, NGOs and industry who share our interest in addressing the challenges faced by cities.

This half-day conference is available to students and staff.

Register here

Good luck to our Cross-Faculty students from Global Sustainable Development and Liberal Arts who will be presenting their research on 25th September, 2018 at the International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR). The two-day annual forum utilises video technology allowing students to present the very best in undergraduate research to a global audience.

Tuesday 25th Sept

08:00-09:30 (Oculus 1.06) - Nicola Blasetti (GSD) - Climate Action in Europe: the costs of climate change and the necessity for adaptation in the EU Member States

08:00-09:30 (Oculus 1.06) - Constance Frohly (GSD) Understanding inequalities in multicultural cities as a dynamic process

11:30-13:00 - (Oculus 1.09) - Rhys Hillan (GSD) - Demonstrating the correlation between food insecurity and mental health issues and the positive role food sovereignty can play in addressing this

11:30-13:00 - (Oculus 1.01) - Virág Belavarí (Liberal Arts) Understanding Revolution Narratives: The Role of Topophilia and Topophobia

14:00-15:30 - (Oculus 1.06) - Davida Mottram-Epson (Liberal Arts) Iranian Women and the State: exploring stasis-kinesis in the revolution through Iranian Literature

17:30-19:00 - (Oculus 1.01) - Najma Ahmad (Liberal Arts) Using gender quotas to meet Sustainable Development Goal 5, gender inequality: A case study analysis of India, Rwanda and Norway

17:30-19:00 - (Oculus 1.01) - Anna Kindleysides-Seidl (Liberal Arts) Blinded by the light: The Moscow Metro and the political use of prestige projects

We wish you all every success!

UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD) found that out of 143 relevant targets, the UK is performing well on 24%, but 57% remain "inadequate", with a futher 15% "poor". The report highlights for the first time how the UK's sustainable development measures in the relation to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's). Water quality was highlighted as an area where the UK is exceeding expectation, however SDG's including "Reduced Inequalities" and "Decent Work and Economic Growth" are indicated as key areas of concern.

The report can be accessed online from UKSSD's website via this link.

You can find out more about UKSSD here.

Julie will be using the URSS funding to combine interests developed through two Second Year Global Sustainable Development (GSD) modules Security, Sovereignty and Sustainability in the Global Food System and Keeping the Phoenix Flying or Clipping its Wings?: Learning through Student Research into the Praxis of ‘local’ Sustainable Development

Specifically, the inter-disciplinary research will investigate the history of hunger in Coventry since the Industrial Revolution. It will critically analyse strategies used to combat hunger in relation to broader economic, social and political contexts. Analysis will be based on archival research and primary data generated through interviews.

It is hoped that this work will illustrate how students can feed into the University’s emerging agenda of local and regional engagement, currently being championed in the department’s research-based teaching of local sustainable development in the City of Coventry.