Issue 66: February 2017

Message from the Global RCE Service Centre:   Dear Colleagues and Friends, How to benefit most of the RCE Network: A catalogue of resources Find all the information you need on how to benefit from the RCE Network. This is interesting for existing and new RCEs alike. Here RCEs can get insight in how to use the website, the Name and Logo Policy, Annual Reporting, Facebook, e-bulletin submission, and you can download a mentoring pack. Read more RCE Greater Portland has prepared a mentoring webinar for new and existing RCEs that summarises the RCE network’s goals and activities. Watch it Read more Scoping of RCEs' work on Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Traditional Knowledge The following questionnaire is for a preliminary documentation of RCEs' work on biodiversity, ecosystem services, traditional knowledge (terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems). Please fill in all the activities (Research, Assessments, Capacity development/training/education/awareness programs, Policy advocacy, Implementation projects etc.) of all the RCE partners. The survey can be accessed Read more Scoping of RCEs' work on Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Traditional Knowledge We want to hear from you! Earth Day on 22 April focuses on ‘Environmental and Climate Literacy’. Are you planning any activities or do you have any ongoing projects related to this day? If so, we would like to hear about it and showcase your activities. Please send an email to rceservicecentre@unu.edu. You can find some helpful resources to guide you on Climate Literacy here. FINAL REMINDER - Open Call Regional Conferences 2017 (deadline 15 March 2017) RCEs that wish to host a regional conference can still apply by sending a letter to the RCE Service Centre at rceservicecentre@unu.eduby 15 March, 2017. For more information visit the RCE Portal For more information visit the RCE Portal Sincerely, The Global RCE Service Centre     Upcoming Events   German RCEs Meeting 6-8 March, 2017, Nuernberg, Germany Among other items, German RCEs will meet to discuss the upcoming RCE Europe Meeting and activities in 2017. International Symposium on Biodiversity and Sustainability 12 March, 2017, UNU-Headquarters, Tokyo UNU-IAS, together with the University of Tokyo Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), will co-host this symposium that will bring together leading experts to discuss the integration of social and ecological systems. Discussions will include the valuation of ecosystem services, with a view to contributing to building societies in harmony with nature, achieving the SDGs and promoting sustainability science.? Read more 21st Annual EAUC Conference: Global Goals: Local Action" 28-30 March, 2017, Lancaster, UK The 2017 Annual Conference of the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) will bring together delegates from the further and higher education sector. Delegates include those responsible for environmental management, estates and facilities, finance and procurement as well as curriculum leaders and students. Read more International Congress on Education for the 21st Century (ICE2017) 3-4 May, 2017, Nonthaburi Thailand Hosted by the Ministry of Education, Thailand and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) the Congress brings together diverse education actors and stakeholders representing the governments of SEAMEO Member Countries as well as public and private education institutions and agencies. Read more Sustainable Development Conference - Green technology, Renewable energy and Environmental protection 13-15 July, 2017, Bangkok, Thailand Conference on sustainable development is intended to be a forum, discussion and networking place for academics, researchers, professionals, administrators, educational leaders, policy makers, industry representatives, advanced students, and others. Read more Symposium on Sustainable Development Research in Asia-Pacific 25-28 July 2017, Melbourne, Australia The conference will be hosted by ProSPER.Netmember RMIT University in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, and RCE Hamburg, under the auspices of the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP). Deadline for registration is 30 May, 2017. Read more The Resilience 2017 conference 20-23 August, 2017, Stockholm, Sweden Followed by the International Conference on Sustainability Science – Global Goals: new approaches to knowledge generation – challenges and solutions from local to global scales Organised by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and sponsored by Future Earth, these conferences will be linked together with a science-policy-practice day on 24 August. This day will be a dialogue for pathways for sustainable and resilient societies. The SDG Labs with be complemented by SDG sessions organised by Future Earth’s Knowledge Action Networks. Read more For more events visit our ESD calendar. Open Calls   Launch of RCE Disaster Risk Reduction Group in Asia Pacific The frequency and magnitude of disasters pose a serious threat to mankind, which require a certain preparedness for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Preparedness for DRR is an integral part of ESD. The RCE community provides a perfect platform for addressing DRR by way of ‘Building Climate Smart, Disaster Resilient and Sustainable Communities’. The ‘Mehfooz’ (in Urdu language) ‘School Safety’ Programme encompasses safety of all, safety everywhere, and safety all the time. In an open call, RCE Srinagar appeals and encourages RCEs in the Asia Pacific region to engage in DRR. For more information on how to join the RCE DRR Group for Asia Pacific click here Call for Ideas and Innovations for Breakthroughs to Achieve the SDGs Future Earth and the Stockholm Resilience Centre are looking for ideas with potential to make major breakthroughs on the SDGs. The outcomes of the SDG Labs will be presented on 24 August during the joint “Ideas and Innovation” policy day for policymakers, business, researchers and media  Read more Vacancy: Senior Programme Associate ESD Team, UNU-IAS, Tokyo The ESD Team at UNU-IAS is looking for a Senior Programme Associate to coordinate the overall work of the ESD Project including the day-to-day management as well as programme outreach, event coordination, and budget management. Deadline is 3 March, 2017 Read more 2017 International Essay Contest for Young People Young people from around the world are invited to enter the 2017 International Essay Contest for Young People organized by the Goi Peace Foundation, a GAP Key Partner Read more Latest News   Americas RCE Meeting Concludes with Collaborative Action Plan for the Region The RCE Meeting of the Americas was hosted by RCE Curitiba-Parana in Curitiba, Brazil from 19-24 October, 2016. The theme of this year’s meeting was "Renewable Energy and Sustainable Education", and was held in parallel with a regional symposium on Low Carbon Economy, Renewable Energy and Cities. To promote each RCEs contribution to the SDGs, individual RCE Action Plans were consolidated into a collaborative Action Plan for the Americas region. Outcomes of the Conference have now been posted online here.Photos are now onfacebook Video on New RCE Georgetown, USA Watch the Video on the launch of new RCE Georgetown, South Carolina, USA, that joined end of 2016. With a projected population growth of 95 percent from 2000 to 2030, the region is faced with substantial environmental and economic consequences over the next years. Here is how they plan to address these issues. Read more Policy Makers in South East Asia Grasp Concept of Sustainable Value Chains - Shifting from ‘Governance through Rules’ to ‘Governance through Goals’ Over 50 policymakers of different ministries from ASEAN countries joined the ASEAN+3 Leadership Programme in Hanoi, Vietnam to learn more about Sustainable Consumption and Production best practices and addressing the demand of upscaling these through new models and systems. Read more Students Celebrate World Wetlands Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. CEE Himalaya and RCE Srinagar, together with other organisations, conducted various events across the Indian Himalayan Region in February on the occasion of World Wetlands Day. Through educational games, quizzes and drawing competitions, students looked at the problems associated with depleting wetlands and how these relate to disaster risks. Read more The Stockholm Statement - Towards a consensus on the principles of policy-making for the contemporary world 13 economists discussed the challenges faced by today’s economic policy makers and came up with ten principles essential for policy making. Read more European Union Policy Brief Series: European Identity and the Learning Union The Learning Union is at “arm’s length” distance from Governments with autonomy and funding designed to incentivize learning goals as well as equality of opportunity. Universities are a special case with regard to increasing competitiveness, but also for their impact on identity. The Learning Union has three components: contributing to a sense of European belonging, the “communication EU” as well as the “competency EU”. Download the policy brief Read more Five Challenges of Analysing Progress – and How We Got Around Them Sadly, it’s often the positive development stories that don’t make the headlines – for example how Nepal has reduced maternal mortality by an estimated 75% since the early 1990s; how Peru lowered urban poverty from 42% to 16% between 2001 and 2013, or how Burkina Faso reclaimed 2-300,000 hectares of land from the Saharan desert over the past 30 years. These are just a few of the examples that deserve more attention. This ODI article summarises a few of the biggest challenges in trying to better analyse examples of progress like these. Read more Winners of 2016 SEAMEO-Japan ESD Award Announced The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan in cooperation with UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education have announced the winners of the 2016 SEAMEO-Japan ESD Award under the theme 'Saving Energy’. Read more National Students Union (NSU) Survey on Sustainability This survey initiated by NSU and the results clearly show how much students care about sustainability. 80 per cent of them want their institution to be doing more on sustainable development, 60 per cent of students want to learn more about sustainability. Read more World Economic Forum: Why Collaboration Will be Key to Achieving the SDGs Building partnership models which are long lasting, scalable and transformative, and which create shared value are key. The rapid transformation heralded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution will affect economic, social, environmental, cultural and political life more widely, demanding new ways of working together. Read more ESD Books, Publications and Other   Urban Environmental Education Review, Russ and Krasny, eds., 2017 According to 90 scholars from six continents, environmental education in cities can foster urban sustainability, as showcased in this book. Three themes—participation of urban residents in planning and environmental stewardship, exploring and reconstructing urban places, and forming partnerships among disciplines and organizations who care about the urban environment—emerged as critical. Read more This is a publication of UNU-IAS RCE Global Service Centre If you wish to contribute to the monthly bulletin or have news, upcoming events, or publications, you would like to share, please use this form You can mail it to the Global RCE Service Centre: rceservicecentre@unu.edu. Submissions must be made by the 15th of every month. In addition, we encourage you to continue using the RCE Portal to exchange ideas, share expertise and resources and deliberate emerging sustainability issues towards ESD implementation at a global level. Please send your comments, suggestions and materials to rceservicecentre@unu.edu.   To unsubscribe click here.   United Nations University 5–53–70 Jingumae Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925 Japan To opt-out of all United Nations University contact system messages: Opt-out