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ISDRS Q4 Newsletter 2021

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Contents

1. Message from the President

2. Announcements

3. International Climate Law PhD Workshop or Seminar Series 2022

4. European effort to create mathematical models to reutilize agrifood by-products

5. Ecosystem Restoration: The Bold Experiment for Rewilding Australia

6. Shaping the future: Election to the Future Earth Governing Council

7. COP 26 – Towards for a Greater Sustainability of the Planet

8. Ybarra Awards: Recognizing excellence among academicians in the Philippines and their contributions to sustainable development

9. Sustainability Initiatives: PXL's Green office

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1. Message from the President

A past, a present, and a future within a pandemic? A time for reimagination.

During the pandemic, teachers, researchers and students all over the world have experienced chaotic working and learning conditions; have made plans for family gatherings just to cancel them; have seen loved ones becoming seriously or fatally ill; have had no or limited access to internet and online resources or support; have seen research or learning trips become impossible; and have been confronted with a totally changed working, studying and living situation. All these people needed to chance their study lives completely to save lives. They struggle with isolation every day. I can feel their hardship; I can feel that you too long for a presence and future without the pandemic.

My current thoughts while writing this message wobble back and forth in time. I often find my thoughts go back, to September 2021, when I last addressed you in the ISDRS Newsletter. I remember writing about the pulse of academia having welcomed back students from summer break in Sweden, and carefully welcoming them back to campus after the pandemic. Or so I thought.

As my thoughts move to the future, to March 2022, I realize that the newsletter Q1 of 2022 will be written around the 2-year anniversary of when the Director-General of the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020 officially announced covid-19 as a global pandemic.

These thoughts place me directly within the central realm of addressing the ISDRS community through our newsletters. Existing between past and future thoughts, and midway in time between September 2021 and March 2022, makes me acutely aware that we are all sharing this long-stretched presence in an era with covid-19, and its many mutations to come (it took me until early December to learn to say and spell “omicron”; one upside is that we are learning the Greek alphabet on the way…).

Our collective experience in this era also presents an opportunity to reimagine and redefine how we think about sustainability. In June of 2019, the organizing group of ISDRS 2022 decided the key words that would form the conference: “Sustainable Development and Courage. Culture, Art and Human Rights”. At the time, I did not have the faintest idea the relevance that those words would have in our present and the guidance they would provide us in our ambitions to create a fantastic research conference at which science- and artistic-based scholars would meet.

The pandemic will obviously not be over by the time the third summer in the covid-19 era approaches. Courage and hope are indeed needed to plan and prepare for ISDRS 2022, whether as conference organizers, abstract submitters or as reviewing track chairs – or all of the above. Together, we will embrace the conference in all its forms of being on campus, online, or joining in a hybrid setting.

I encourage you to join us and hope to turn ISDRS 2022 into a joint, wonderful, stimulating, and memorable conference! Join in, spread the word, and submit abstracts!

Best seasonal wishes from a very cold and wintery Stockholm!

Peter Dobers, professor
ISDRS President 2021-2022
president@isdrs.org
December 10, 2021 in Stockholm, at the end of the Nobel Prize Week and what for many years has been the Nobel Prize Award Day
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2. Announcements

ISDRS 2022 Conference update

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As the ISDRS President expressed in his message, uncertainty and ever-changing conditions continue to characterize our present and how we position ourselves when planning for the future. In order to acknowledge potential feelings of uncertainty towards the ISDRS Conference 2022 we, the organizing committee, wish to inject a small dose of certainty and emphasize that the conference will take place. With courage and hope we are planning for an on-campus conference with online elements. However, we invite you to embrace it in which ever shape it will take, on campus, online or a hybrid version.

The practical work towards the conference is accelerating and within the organizing committee we see an inspiring program starting to take shape that will mirror the special topic of the conference: ‘Sustainability and courage: culture, art and human rights’. In short, it will be a conference characterized by dialogue, artistic performances and the meeting and merging of several academic ‘worlds’.

With that said, the most important news to share in this issue of the ISDRS Newsletter is our CALL FOR ABSTRACTS. A first deadline for submissions recently passed on the 15th of December. However, in the collegial spirit of research conferences, the decision has been made to extend the deadline until 17th January 2022.

Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to inspire you to spread this call for abstracts amongst your networks and of course make sure to submit your own contribution!

Thanks to our brilliant track chairs we have the pleasure of announcing 10 overarching themes and 35 tracks for submitters to choose amongst. We especially encourage you to explore the four new exciting tracks that have been added due to the conference theme: 2c, 6c, 10e and 10d.

Extended deadline: 17th January 2022

Submission form: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/

Tracks and themes: https://2022.isdrsconferences.org/tracks

Keep updated on: https://2022.isdrsconferences.org

Questions? Mail us at: isdrs2022@isdrsconferences.org

See you in Stockholm, both on campus and online in June 2022!

ISDRS 2022 Conference Organizing Committee

Announcement of ISDRS 2022-2023 Election Result

The following members have been (re)elected) to fill the vacant positions in the Board, and will serve during 2022-2023 tenure:



S/n
Name of candidate
Remark
1.
Marlen Arnold
Re-elected
2.
Francisco Comin
Re-elected
3.
Alex Franklin
Re-elected
4.
Simon Lockrey
Re-elected
5.
Roberto Merli
Re-elected
6.
Sebastian Thomas
Re-elected
7.
Prajal Pradhan
Elected
8.
Gustavo Paez
Elected


We wish them a successful tenure.
Thank you.
Olawale Olayide
Chair, Election Committee

ISDRS New Professionals Group

Call for Expression of Interest - 2 ISDRS vacancies

1. Vacancy – Co-leader New Professionals Group

We are looking for a co-leader to the New Professionals Group (NPG) that can join the important work of maintaining and inspire a new generation of scholars to continue their sustainability careers and to be part of the ISDRS community.

The NPG working group aims to be a platform for early-stage researchers working with sustainable development. The main event of the group is the annual PhD workshop at the ISDRS conferences, but additional activities are arranged, including the mentorship programme, all which have the purpose to strengthen the community of ISDRS early-stage researchers.

The position will entail leading the work with the group together with current co-leader Saurabh Biswas, Arizona State University.

In order to apply for the position, we want you to prepare a short application with a few sentences about your motivations behind the application and what qualifies you as a co-leader of the ISDRS NPG.

Please send your application to Charlotte Mummery, Assistant ISDRS, assistant@isdrs.org by 20 January 2022.

For more information about the NPG, please visit https://isdrs.org/10a-new-professionals-group/

2. Vacancy – Leader New Professionals Group’s Mentorship Programme

We are looking for a volunteer to take over the management of the New Professionals Group’s (NPG) Mentorship programme. The programme run in 2021 and its first cohort are to be finished in January 2022.

The main goal of the ISDRS Mentorship Programme is to connect senior academics (mentor) with junior academics (mentee) in a meaningful way, and thereby creating a mutual benefit, and cementing a stronger relationship between all involved: the new professionals, the senior ones, and within ISDRS as a whole.

In order to apply for the position, we want you to prepare a short application with a few sentences about your motivations behind the application and what qualifies you as a leader of the ISDRS NPG’s Mentorship Programme.

Please send your application to Charlotte Mummery, Assistant ISDRS, assistant@isdrs.org by 20 January 2022.

For more information about the NPG’s Mentorship Programme, please visit https://isdrs.org/10a-new-professionals-group/

Best Article Award 2021 – Jury Members wanted

Dear Member,

The ISDRS Best Article Award is becoming a pivotal element of rewarding the excellent research work in the field of sustainability and progressing ground-breaking knowledge to public. In 2022 ISDRS will hand out the Best Article Award for the best sustainable development publication of the previous year for the fifth time. The rising numbers of nominations encourage the ISDRS board to continue the selection of a Best Article Award this year again.

Thus, we look for volunteers and active members for the Award Jury. The ISDRS jury selects the shortlist of papers for voting from those nominated. The Award Jury reviews the suggested articles based on given criteria and nominates a shortlist of 5 papers: each Jury member reviews a batch of the suggested articles, assessing these on a 1-10 points scale. Each article is assessed by 3 Jury members.

So, we are looking for helpful hands to sever as award jury! Please consider becoming a member of the jury and kindly send your interest to Charlotte Mummery via email (assistant@isdrs.org).

Thank you very much.
Many best wishes,
Marlen Arnold, ISDRS Jury Chair

Best Article Award 2021

In 2022 ISDRS will hand out the Best Article Award for the best sustainable development publication of the previous year 2021.

So, when reading papers, keep the ISDRS Best Article Award 2021 in mind and please nominate thrilling sustainability papers!

You are all warmly invited to nominate thrilling and ground-breaking sustainability-related articles, published in 2021, according to the following criteria:

(i) The article has been accepted and published (including online early view versions) in 2021 in a scientific peer-reviewed journal, accepted by commonly used scientific literature databases (like ISI, Scopus, etc.).
(ii) The articles are in English.
(iii) The content of the article addresses a sustainable development topic with an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary perspective.
(iv) The article makes a well-defined contribution to academic debates and shows awareness of the complex nature of sustainable development.
(v) The article offers or at least provides hints for possible solutions to sustainability problems.
(vi) The article enables positive societal impacts, bridging between science and society.
(vii) The nomination should be accompanied by DOI number.
(viii) Members can nominate their own work, but this will be noted in the selection procedure.

To submit an article, visit the ISDRS Best Article 2021 page click here or to nominate an article click 'nominate' below.
The page is open from now to 15/2/2022.

You can also invite friends and colleagues to participate - they only have to register as followers, with no strings attached, to be able to join the nominating and later the voting.

Nomination process
A key element of the process is the ISDRS jury which selects the shortlist of papers for voting from those nominated. The Award Jury reviews the suggested articles briefly and nominates a shortlist of approx. 5 to max. 10 papers: each Jury member reviews a batch of the suggested articles, assessing these on a 1-10 points scale. Each article is assessed by 2 or 3 Jury members.

The nominated articles will be made available on a special website page of the ISDRS homepage, allowing for registration, submission and voting.

The voting will be online, by all members and followers. Each member will be able to select the best article to her opinion, resulting in a ranking of papers.

Time schedule
December 2021 - 15/2/2022 Nomination period
15/2/2022 - 15/3/2022 Selection of shortlist by the Award Jury
31/3/2022 Publication of shortlist, invitation to vote on best article
1/4/2022 - 24/4/2022 Voting period for members and followers
24/4/2022 - 10/5/2022 Analysis of the vote, identification of No. 1 to 3 articles
10/5/2022 - 25/5/2022 Inviting the winners to participate at the conference or supply a video, inviting the 1st price winner to prepare for a keynote in next year's conference

To submit an article, visit the ISDRS Best Article 2021 page AND click here
Thank you for your contribution and your support!

Many best wishes
Marlen Arnold, Jury chair & Peter Dobers, ISDRS President

Apply Now to Join RES Early Career Editorial Board

Resources, Environment and Sustainability (RES) is a peer-reviewed transdisciplinary journal aiming at publishing high-quality original research from a broad range of natural, social and engineering fields.

You can find RES on the following social media:
  • RES Linkedin group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13933018/
  • RES Linkedin company page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/76262452/
  • RES Twitter: https://twitter.com/res_journal
  • RES Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTlBPCjtazd3etTT7org1Cg
  • RES WeChat:
RES intends to form an Early Career Editorial Board (ECEB) to provide a pathway for outstanding early career researchers from around the globe to gain experience in editorial functions. ECEB members will serve a one-year term with the possibility of renewal for a second term. Exceptional ECEB members will be elevated to a RES editorial board member status.

Qualifications
  • Active in research fields that are relevant to the journal scope.
  • Within 8 years of having earned a doctoral degree.
  • Be familiar with academic paper writing and publishing. Experience in peer review is preferred.
  • Fluent in English language.
Specific Responsibilities
  • Serve as an ambassador to promote the journal via academic network, social media, conferences and other channels.
  • Submit manuscripts as the lead/corresponding author to the journal actively.
  • Conduct reviews for a certain number of submissions to the journal annually.
  • Provide consultation on manuscripts with the journal editors at their requests.
  • Attend editorial board meetings and participate in activities organized by the journal.
  • Additional editorial tasks or special projects as requested by the editors.
Interested candidates please visit our website https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/resources-environment-and-sustainability/about/news. The application deadline is 31st December 2021, with the term expected to begin in early 2022. The selected ECEB members’ names will be posted on the RES webpage.

New Book Release

Odunola & Olayide.Mentorship.Front Cover 2021
A new edited book has been released. It is titled “Building the Next Generation of Mentors in Africa: Principles, Practices & Impacts”. The book contains eight chapters written by seasoned scholars in Africa. It distinguishes the roles of mentors, supervisors and role models, while exploring the complexity of gender in mentorship.

The full-text of the new book is available for free download via 'book' button below.

Thank you.
Olawale Olayide
Co-editor
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3. International Climate Law PhD Workshop or Seminar Series 2022

The Climate Law Research Institute (ClimLaw: https://climlaw.uni-graz.at/en/), University of Graz, are thinking of developing an International Climate Law PhD Workshop or Seminar Series. Often, we see a number of broader Environmental Law PhD Workshops which have been so perfectly executed that possibly narrowing down the scope to Climate Law specifically would be innovative and thought provoking. It is necessary to point out that it is to be either a Workshop or Seminar Series because it is not certain what exact form this event would take just yet.

What is know is this:
  • It would consist of Climate Law related topics as well as lectures from experts in various fields of climate law, including: energy, human rights, sustainable development, soil, mobility etc.
  • Each session will focus on one an area of climate law and will consist of a lecture and PhD presentations. Thus, giving PhD students an opportunity to engage with specialists in fields of study related to their topics as well as bringing together a diverse range of PhD candidates.
  • Given the international nature of this workshop it will be online and thus easily accessible.
  • It is best to have this Workshop or Seminar Series in the end or beginning of the academic year. For example in the last week of May (23-27 May 2022) or the first week of October (3-7 October 2022).
It would be beneficial to have as many universities and institutions as possible involved and so if you or your colleagues at other institutions would like to be involved then kindly advise.

It is also planned to provide a networking event for the speakers and the university organisers so as to build this Workshop or Seminar Series and encourage further global Climate Law connections.

We at ClimLaw would appreciate your involvement and support for this upcoming project. If you are interested in participating at this stage, kindly email ISDRS member Larissa Jane Houston (larissa.houston@uni-graz.at) specifying which dates would be suitable for you (May or October) so we can block off our calendars relatively early and move forward with planning and cooperation.

We look forward to hearing from you!
Climate Law Research Institute (ClimLaw)
University of Graz
Attemsgasse 11/1, 8010 Graz
Tel: +43(0) 3163806705
https://climlaw.uni-graz.at/en/
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4. European effort to create mathematical models to reutilize agrifood by-products

2. Infographic 3
A pioneering decision support tool to predict agrifood residual streams and to identify best routes for reusing them is being develop as a part of the EU funded project: Model2Bio. The tool will be tested and validated in Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece and will put forward a solution classified as a Decision Support System.

Coordinated by Asociación Centro Tecnológico (CEIT), the project combines the strengths of technology development entities, research centres, universities, industries and clusters to create a potential solution to transform 30% of by-products in resources for other bio-industries.

Click on image below to see more
Or learn more about the project here

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5. Ecosystem Restoration: The Bold Experiment for Rewilding Australia

3. Fig1.UNEcostemDecade.cr
Dr John Paull
j.paull@utas.edu.au

As the United Nations launches its Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) , it is timely to recall a champion for the cause with ‘runs on the board’. His was a bold vision and the boldest of experiments in Australian conservation history. Exclude feral animals from Australian land and facilitate the recovery of the landscape to an ecologically balanced state. The feral-exclusion would be via feral-proof fences - steel mesh fencing high enough to stop ferals jumping over it, and buried deep enough to stop ferals burrowing under it. The key targets for exclusion were cats and foxes.

The grand experiment in rewilding Australia is told in a new book: A Vanishing Kind: A Memoir of Dr John Wamsley in Conversation (Wamsley & Davey, 2020). It is the story of the vision of John Wamsley, the man-in-the-cat-hat, and the publicly listed company he founded to reify his vision, Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL). The play out of the bold experiment is told irreverently and in a conversational style. The book is easy reading.

Dr John Wamsley bought an ex-dairy property at Mylor, on the outskirts of Adelaide, South Australia, in 1969. He set to work fencing it - with a feral-proof fence - and re-populating it with Australian native flora and fauna. Keep out cats and foxes. It was a successful proof of concept - exclude the ferals and the natives could prosper. Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary opened to the public in 1985.

The dual conservation and commercial successes of Warrawong, ushered in the temptation to replicate those successes, bigger and better. A new company, Earth Sanctuaries, was founded in 1988 with the view to develop further sanctuaries.

Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL) was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in 2000. The inflow of funds enabled the purchase of large tracts of land deemed suitable for sanctuaries, including in New South Wales and Victoria. So far so good.

An ambitious fencing plan was initiated, but fences are expensive, labour is expensive, fences need monitoring and maintenance, properties need managers, then factor in numerous obstacles and bureaucratic obstruction to be overcome. At its peak, ESL had 11 prospective sanctuaries, in 3 states, and accounted for 100,000 hectares.

Ultimately, it appears that Earth Sanctuaries failed for the lack of a viable business plan. Bureaucratic obstructionism didn’t help. Wildlife were not ‘stock’, but could an accounting value be put on them? Apparently not. To attract paying customers and hence a cash flow, a sanctuary needed to be a going concern, with management, visitor facilities, visitor experiences, wildlife encounters, and be drivable from a population centre. Another ‘cash cow’, like Warrawong, never materialised in the brief history of Earth Sanctuaries. Management was passed from John Wamsley to his partner Proo Geddes, and then to an external CEO. In 2005, the company was delisted.

Since then, the mantra of John Wamsley has come in from the wilderness, and is now mainstream: “Feral cats threaten the survival of over 100 native species in Australia. They have caused the extinction of some ground-dwelling birds and small to medium-sized mammals. They are a major cause of decline for many land-based endangered animals such as the bilby, bandicoot, bettong and numbat. Many native animals are struggling to survive, so reducing the number killed by this introduced predator will allow their populations to grow” (DAWE, 2021).

It is estimated that, in a year in Australia, feral cats kill 596 million reptiles, 92 million frogs, 316 million birds, and 964 million mammals (Threatened Species Recovery Hub, 2019).

Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL) was the world’s first publicly listed company whose business was conservation. The wonderful and curious platypuses and pademelons, bandicoots, bettongs and bridled nailtail wallabies, stick-nest rats, woylies, bilbies, numbats, and so many others, were worth conserving, are still worth conserving. But how is it to be achieved?

Since Warrawong was relinquished by John Wamsley, the original sanctuary has changed ownership several times. It is once again in private hands (as of 2017), a going concern, and a wildlife sanctuary open to the public.

A charity, Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), purchased some of the Earth Sanctuaries land out of bankruptcy. They state: “Australian Wildlife Conservancy is the largest private owner and manager of land for conservation in Australia, protecting endangered wildlife across more than 6.5 million hectares … Recognising that ‘business as usual’ for conservation in Australia will mean additional extinctions, AWC is developing and implementing a new model for conservation” .

As has been observed, those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it. John Wamsley gave it his best shot, and he lives to tell the tale, frankly and fearlessly in this book, with sagacity, good humour, and with not too much bitterness.

The Wamsley vision was for 1% of Australia to be feral-free. What has been achieved to date is 0.1% (Threatened Species Recovery Hub, 2019). There remains much work to be done. How to avoid the ‘tragedy of the commons’ (Hardin, 1968) if the commons is no one’s business? In contrast to a commercial enterprise, it remains an open question, how to fund an eco-enterprise?

Perhaps a lesson from the failure of Earth Sanctuaries and from the endurance of AWC since then, is that conservation is a charity not a business - at least for now. For those with a rewilding project or an ecosystem restoration plan in their sights, A Vanishing Kind is essential reading.

References

DAWE. (2021). Feral Cats. Canberra: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) .
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243-1248.
Threatened Species Recovery Hub. (2019). The Impact of Cats in Australia. Brisbane: Science for Saving Species, Research Findings Factsheet Project 1.1.2, Threatened Species Recovery Hub.
Wamsley, J., & Davey, S. L. (2020). A Vanishing Kind: A Memoir of Dr John Wamsley in Conversations. Bloomington, IN: Balboa Press.
3.Fig2.WamsleyBook
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6. Shaping the future

Election to the Future Earth Governing Council

We would like to congratulate our colleague Arijit Paul for being elected into the governing council of Future Earth. There he will work at the interface between science and policy, supporting today’s decision makers on major sustainability challenges of the world.
Arijit Paul is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Systems Sciences Innovation and Sustainability Research at the University of Graz. He has an interdisciplinary research focus and is interested in combining insights from ethics, psychology, sociology, and organizational theories for developing an integrated understanding of the relationship between business and climate change.
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7. COP 26 – Towards for a Greater Sustainability of the Planet

Authors: Maria Gabriela Meirelles and Helena Cristina Vasconcelos

The anthropogenic climate change is one of the main threats to planetary security in the 21st century. For 25 years some countries have been implementing international agreements to combat climate change. In 1992, the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) hosted the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Within the scope of these Conference, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was born. The main objective was the regulation of goals aimed at stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse gases, at levels without dangerous interference to the climate system. However, the document did not establish maximum limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Figure 1 shows some of the Conferences of the Parties that have already taken place.
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Figure 1 – Some of the main Conferences of the Parties (COP).
Source: Adapted from Iberdola

The 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), which took place in Glasgow between the 31st of October and the 12th of November 2021, is the last reference in climate policy. The main objective was that the delegations of the different countries, which in the past amended the Paris Agreement, could now set the goal to limit global warming by the end of the century. This will have to be 1.5 °C below the pre-industrial period. The journey has already started, and the different countries must define together the deadlines for the occurrence of reviews and monitoring of the commitments assumed in terms of climate. After six years of deadlock, COP26 finally approved the rules for the carbon regulatory market, linked to the Paris Agreement. The initiative was celebrated as a further step towards increasing investments in decarbonization projects in the coming years. The agreement states that the world's nations will have to accelerate towards more ambitious targets towards carbon neutrality, asking that new targets be updated by the end of 2022. The global agreement was also included the reduction of methane (CH4) emissions to the atmosphere and an attempt to get zero emissions in the transports segment: the goal is that by 2040 all sales of new vehicles will be of neutral carbon models. Is the first time that COP includes in the final agreement an appeal to reduce the use of coal and fossil fuels. Around 40 countries, such as Canada, Poland, South Korea, Ukraine, Indonesia, and Vietnam, have already committed to shutting down coal-fired plants. The future cannot depend on coal, oil or natural gas, and the transition to renewable energy is really happening.
A declaration on forests and land use was also announced at the COP, which set the goal of ending deforestation in the world by 2030. So far, 140 countries have joined the group that promises to work “collectively to stop and reverse forest loss and land degradation”. Together, these countries account for over 85% of the world's forests.
Developing countries were not forgotten and, at the end of COP 26, a document was signed that called on developed countries to commit to the creation of financing mechanisms, aimed at helping countries that are already suffering from the effects of climate change. The initiative was vague in terms of details and timelines.
The United States and the European Union led the global methane deal. It aims to reduce emissions by at least 30% by 2030, mainly in agriculture. Moreover, fossil fuel extraction also represents a major source of methane emissions. Methane is one of the main greenhouse gases because it has a higher heat retention potential than CO2. in addition, methane has a residence time in the atmosphere of about twenty years, which means that reductions in the present can have a big impact on controlling the planet's temperature rise. In the Azores archipelago (Portugal), the molar fraction of methane has been increasing since the year 1750, see Graph 1. Air samples for methane analysis were collected at Serreta station - Terceira Island, and analyzed at NOAA ESRL - Colorado, using gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector.
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Graph 1 - Sample analysis of monthly methane (CH4) values is made in NOAA laboratories, within the scope of the Cooperative Global Air Sampling Network.

From the analysis of Graph 1, it can be concluded that, as far as methane is concerned, the Azores are following the world trend towards an increase in the concentration of this gas with a greenhouse effect. Continuing the current growth trend of this gas, it is predicted that by 2050 the atmosphere of the Azores will contain around 2100 nmol mol-1 of methane gas.
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8. Ybarra Awards: Recognizing excellence among academicians in the Philippines and their contributions to sustainable development

Mark Gabriel Wagan Aguilar, MBA, MHMT markgabrielaguilar@gmail.com
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One of the determinants of sustainable development is education. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), education is an integral element of several of the Sustainable Development Goals set for a better world. There is a strong correlation between higher education and the competitiveness of the economy and sustainable development (Krstic et al, 2020). Based on the study of Kirbassov (2014), education eradicates extreme poverty, it says that making primary, secondary, and higher education available and accessible for people experiencing poverty give them an opportunity to acquire knowledge and develop the necessary skills to become more compatible in the labor market, thus, giving them a chance to improve their lives.
Education also significantly affects the area of entrepreneurship as educated people are more entrepreneurial than those who are not; the study shows that the more entrepreneurs there are in a society, the more jobs they create for the people. It is not just in extreme poverty and entrepreneurship; education actually has significant impacts to all Sustainable Development Goals; a strong education system broadens one's access to opportunities, improves health, and maximizes the resilience capability of communities, which contributes to economic growth as a whole. Moreover, education provides the skills people need to adapt to a new sustainable economy, which will give them the ability to work in the areas of renewable energy, smart agriculture, forest rehabilitation, the design of resource-efficient cities, and sound management of healthy ecosystems. Perhaps most importantly, education can cause a major shift in how we think, act, and perform our responsibilities toward one another, our community, and the planet. Education is indeed the key; it has always been the key towards sustainable economic development.

Teachers as we all know have been considered as modern heroes, and provided that they are the one behind this tool for sustainable development, they are indeed an essential part of the community alongside with other academicians who are responsible in the operations of educational institutions with an aim to make quality education accessible to all. In response, to recognize their contributions and efforts, Club Educatif et Culturel de Levixon Lundi pour la Paix et le Développement (CECLLPAD) in cooperation with Theophany University in Haiti headed by Dr. Levixon Lundi, University President, and
represented in the Philippines by Dr. Zaldy Carreon De Leon Jr., University Vice Rector, has introduced Ybarra Awards. Crisostomo "Ybarra" is the hero in the globally known novels of the Philippines National Hero-Dr. Jose P. Rizal, which are Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. The awarding ceremony was named after him in reflection to his morals and values, which has been the basis of the four awards presented - the Global Teacher Award for teachers who are able to transform people, the Global Researcher Award for researchers who are able to see beyond scholarships, the Global Leader Award for leaders who are able to reform societies, and the Global Servant Award for servants who are able to bring the light of hope to others. On top of this, proceeds from the event will go to Haiti through the humanitarian works and community development services of University President Dr. Levixon Lundi.

Indeed, this program does not just recognize and honor the invaluable contributions of teachers, academic leaders, and industry practitioners who have supported learning and development, but will also fuel the passion and commitment in them to continuously strengthen education systems and develop progressive communities. This year, the Ybarra Awards 2021 is set to be held from December 27 to 29, 2021 at Mexico, Pampanga, Philippines.

Photos below were taken during the Ybarra Awards Ceremonies in the previous years.
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9. Sustainability Initiatives

Many organizations and enterprises are starting to make serious commitments towards incorporating sustainability into their own organizational logics and strategy. They encourage their students and employees to participate in creative Sustainability Initiatives, closely linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, for example SDG3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and SDG4 (Quality Education). PXL University of Applied Sciences recently launched its student-led GREEN OFFICE. In addition, 250 schools worldwide have been acknowledged for their work on climate education. PXL University of Applied Sciences was one of them, winning the "Climate Action Project School of Excellence" award.

Kathleen De Clerq, Gert Surkyn, Prof. dr. Dirk Franco, Prof. dr. Jean-Pierre Segers and the wonderful team of dedicated students/alumni.

Green Offices EN - Studenten voor Morgen
Green Office Hogeschool PXL (greenofficepxl.be)
Schools of Excellence | Climate Action project (climate-action.info)

Green Office
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