Umweltbundesamt
Click to enlargeThe new International Academy Transformation for Environment and Sustainability (TES Academy) has been launched in a pilot phase at UBA. The kick-off to the project is a virtual discussion series about the implications of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine on the sustainability transformation and how to respond to the situation.
The UBA’s new TES Academy aims to empower people to implement transformation processes towards sustainable development across national and disciplinary boundaries and to develop the structures required to achieve this. The TES Academy offers learning and cooperation spaces across disciplines and backgrounds where participants can experience and (co-)shape concrete transformation processes in response to current challenges. This approach enables joint learning and long-term international cooperation, promotes collaborative networks and partnerships, and develops personal and institutional potential aimed at advancing social transformation for a sustainable future worldwide. The TES Academy will initially run in a pilot phase until the end of 2024 as a part of research conducted by UBA.
With the support of the UBA Task Force “Sustainability and the war in Ukraine”, the TES Academy provides an opportunity for exchange with external experts on the effects of the war in Ukraine on the sustainability transformation.
In the first event on 30 May 2022 (“A disruption of the sustainability transformation? Sustainability policy perspectives on the war in Ukraine“), panellists discussed the current threat of the current pathways toward sustainability and intensification of that threat in some areas. Questions from the audience were then discussed, including conflicting interests in the face of short- and long-term needs, crisis security given back-to-back crises, and the future of multilateral cooperation.
In the second event on 15 July 2022 (“Do industrialized nations neglect their responsibility for promoting the sustainability transformation (in times of multiple crises)?”), representatives mainly from countries of the Global South weighed in with their perspectives. They raised awareness of the challenges they face, which have become more prominent due to Russia’s war in Ukraine as the budget priorities of Western countries have shifted more financial means to security issues and support of their own national economies. The countries of the Global South have become more critical of the will demonstrated by the countries from the Western world to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainability Goals of Agenda 2030 (SDGs) – both at home and as supporters of and in demonstration of solidarity with other countries. As a result, the still often problematic trade and investment relations between industrialised states and states in the Global South are weakening the trust in a mutually fruitful cooperation to find pathways out of the crises facing the globe.
More events in the series are scheduled from 26 August 2022. Title of the next event: The war in Ukraine as magnifying glass of current unsustainability? Perspectives from sustainable production and consumption.
Visit our website for all information about previous and future events.
The UBA’s motto, For our environment (“Für Mensch und Umwelt”), sums up our mission pretty well, we feel. In this video we give an insight into our work.
