Gro Harlem Brundtland Joins Ohio State’s Sustainability Discussions

ORISadmin General

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and Chair of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, recently visited Ohio State’s Columbus campus for a powerful day of discussions and lectures addressing the challenges of global sustainability and dramatic climate change.

 

 

Brundtland Roundtable group 2

IMR Executive Director Steve Ringel, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Casey Hoy, Elena Irwin, and Cinnamon Carlarne were panelists at the Roundtable Program on September 28

The morning began with a roundtable program on Responding to Global Challenges of Sustainability and Resilience: The Nexus of Science, Technology, and Society. Moderated by Elena Irwin, Professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics and faculty lead of the Sustainable and Resilient Economy Discovery Theme, the panel included Dr. Brundtland and Ohio State faculty involved in the leadership of OSU’s Discovery Themes Initiatives. Dr. Bundtland explained that she had traveled directly from New York where she attended the United Nations Summit to adopt a new sustainable development agenda and a new global agreement on climate change. She repeated for the Ohio State audience the exact speech she had given to the United Nations just the day before. Each panelist then discussed sustainability issues from their academic area’s perspective, then answered questions from the audience of Ohio State faculty, staff and students. Casey Hoy, Kellogg Endowed Chair in Agricultural Ecosystem Management and faculty lead of the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT) Discovery Theme, spoke about the agricultural, biological and cultural impacts and goals of sustainability, such as supporting small farmers in the developing world, who are responsible for over 80% of those regions’ food sources. Cinnamon Carlarne, Professor of Law and member of the Faculty Advisory Board for the Energy and Environment theme, focused on international environmental law and its impact on sustainability, and the relationship of economic growth and industrial development with climate change. Steve Ringel, IMR Executive Director, Neal A. Smith Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering and faculty lead of the Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability (M&MS) Discovery Theme, gave an engineering viewpoint on the need to have sustainable processes in technology and manufacturing.

 

 

Later that day, Dr. Brundtland delivered the Provost’s Discovery Themes Lecture, Global Sustainability and the 21st Century. This lecture, attended by several hundred audience members, was followed by a more casual discussion with retired WOSU talk show host Fred Anderhle. During this event Dr. Brundtland reviewed her work over the last few decades to bring attention to climate change, and how climate change has now elevated as a global concern, guiding policy and pushing leaders to sign agreements to make policy changes. She gave examples of the successful public-private partnerships in Norway, such as the popularity of Tesla’s electric vehicles in the country, largely due to the Norwegian government’s commitment to establishing incentives such as high carbon and gas taxes and the elimination of pay tolls for electric vehicles. She outlined goals to address climate change and the need for public funds targeted to supporting those goals. Dr. Brundtland also emphasized her belief that inequalities – both economic inequities and inequities in consumption – must be overcome for sustainability efforts to work. She feels that 2015 will be a crucial year for sustainability efforts, testing our abilities to impact climate change.

 

 

For more information about OSU’s Discovery Themes Initiative, visit http://discovery.osu.edu/