Building Resilience to Disasters in a post-Rio+20 world

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 20-22 June, 2012 to discuss global environmental issues.

UNU-ISP, jointly with Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) organized its official side event on 18 June, titled “Building Resilience to Disasters in the 21st century: Implications of the triple disaster in Japan in a post-Rio+20 world”.

The symposium addressed one of the seven critical issues at Rio+20, this side event reflected on the triple disasters in Japan in 2011 and drew lessons for governance and policy from the international to the local level for developing resilience to hazards in the context of sustainable development in a post-Rio+20 world. Prof. Takeuchi, Vice-Rector of UNU, Director for UNU-ISP, reported the research outcome of the UNU-ISP’s Global Environmental Partnership Project was conducted by Global Environmental Outreach Centre since 2010. He highlighted the need to create more sustainable societies realized through partnerships among government, civil society, NGOs, academics and private sector which was learned from experience of Great East Japan earthquakes.

On 19 June, UNU held a launching event for the new “Higher Education Sustainability Initiative for Rio+20” which calls upon leaders of the academic community around the globe to commit themselves to fostering research and teaching on sustainable development issues, jointly with UNESCO, UNEP, Global Compact and UN PRME.

In the symposium, leading personalities from international academic community discussed the means to promote sustainable development through research and education. As a representative of UNU, Prof. Takeuchi announced its commitment to the initiative and introduced the UNU’s initiative on higher education for sustainable development including Education for Sustainable development in Africa (ESDA) programme.

On 20 June, Prof. Takeuchi delivered a speech, titled “Sustainability through Post-Disaster Rebuilding: Living in Harmony with Nature” in the Japan Day event which was organized by the Japanese government. He showcased the Japan’s experience of green reconstruction and emphasized the importance of establishing a sustainable society that utilizes natural capital.

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