Environmental Lecture Series SS24

Est.1985

One Home, One Chance: Time to Accomplish Sustainability Goals Before the Deadline

Have you ever wondered if our home, our planet, still has a chance? Or if we have already crossed the deadline? And what consequences will follow if we surpass it? Will the deadline become our DEADline?

One thing is clear – the world must become more sustainable. And it must happen now! In 2015, the United Nations urgently called on all nations, regardless of their level of economic development, to take action to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Yet, as we look around the world today, six years before the deadline, we wonder what has become of those calls. Where is the peace? Where is the equality? And where, please, is the climate action? Has anyone looked at the clock and noticed the ticking deadline?

Indeed, yes. Despite all the negative developments, we must not forget that there has been progress too. For instance, the number of people living in extreme poverty has decreased by more than half, dropping from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015. Additionally, effective HIV treatment has cut global AIDS-related deaths by 52% since 2010. These and other success stories are being achieved by humans out there who work tirelessly every day for a sustainable future. These humans, experts in their sustainability goals, will be our speakers and tutors for the lecture series this summer semester. So, let’s get inspired, let’s learn, let’s gain hope, and let’s unite for sustainability as the seventeenth goal, ‘Partnership for the Goals,’ asks of us. Because we have only one home. One chance.

For TUM students interested in earning 1 or 3 ECTS credits

For everybody else

Lectures and events

  • 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Introduction – Environmental Lecture Series
  • From 7:30 pm: Q&A session

    Shared Session with Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences

Lecture Hall R 1.046 | Lothstraße 64 or online via Zoom Meeting-ID 947 3715 4657 with password 631726

 

More details to follow!

    Shared Session with Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences

Lecture Hall 0980 (AUDIMAX, Siemens-Hörsaal, Auditorium Maximum), Ground floor | Arcisstraße 21 or online via our Zoom link

Did you know that everyone has a strong impact on “Life below water” and our marine ecosystems, even though we here in Bavaria live so far away from the ocean? Do you want to learn how and why we need to act now for our oceans and marine life? Then join this lecture by Frank Schweikert, Founder and Director of the German Ocean Foundation. He will explain how the daily work of the institutions he is involved in contribute to a meaningful status improvement of the world’s largest ecosystem – the ocean. Although we humans depend on a healthy ocean to survive on planet Earth and the ocean is connected to all our rivers, we nearly know nothing about it. So, let’s dive into this amazing and still unknown ecosystem, allow ourselves to be inspired to change how we think, act, and feel about the ocean, and learn how we, even as students, can sustainably impact the future of “Life below water”.

Frank Schweikert is the founder and director of the German Ocean Foundation, President of the German Marine Litter Association, and Vice President of the German Society for Marine Research. He is the founder of Hamburg Climate Week (since 2009) and an associated member of the German branch CLUB OF ROME and ALDEBARAN Marine Research and Broadcast. He was a member of the European Union Assembly Mission Board “Climate Change Adaptation, including Societal Transformation” (2019-2022) and an honorary member of the Rotary Club Passport ECO Planet. He studied Biology with a diploma at the Universities of Stuttgart and Munich.

Countries are not on track to meet the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. Although SDGs aim to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path, countries are not yet able to make transformative changes for long-term sustainability that require building social prosperity and foundations within planetary boundaries. Failing to achieve SDGs will negatively affect billions of people and worsen environmental conditions and socio-economic problems. Therefore, BeyondSDG aims to understand the necessary conditions for long-term sustainability, including achieving SDGs, based on the following specific objectives:

  1. identify critical targets for prioritizing SDGs;
  2. investigate the effects of (under)achieving SDGs on long-term sustainability beyond 2030; and
  3. identify sustainability targets for the post-2030 development agenda. For this, BeyondSDG applies a threefold scientific approach that combines statistical analysis of empirical and modelled data, qualitative analysis of literature, and knowledge co-creation with stakeholders, including sectoral experts and policymakers, based on systems thinking.

This combination of three approaches is complementary and essential to deal with the complex topic of long-term sustainability.

Prajal Pradhan, an Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen, studied agricultural engineering and environmental management. He has received the ERC Starting Grant 2022. Prajal was a lead author of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land. He has experience designing relevant research on sustainable development, climate change, and food systems. His current research focuses on understanding the necessary conditions for long-term sustainability, including achieving SDGs, urban transformations, and climate resilience. He is also a Visiting Scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

What does it take to use our economy as a lever to shape the sustainable transformation? And why are we still working with paradigms that are outdated? The talk will give an overview of future needs and obstacles on the way. How can we shape our economy to operate within planetary boundaries? And how do we need to shift our way of thinking about things?

Antonia is advocating for a regenerative and just new economic thinking. She is currently studying the M.A. Responsibility in Science, Engineering and Technology at TU Munich, working at the sustainability consultancy Agentur2020. Furthermore, she is a fellow and coach at the think-tank CRITICAL FRIENDS, where they actively want to create a beautiful economy.

A healthy ocean is essential to global well-being, biodiversity, and includes critical ecosystems underpinning all life on earth. Despite its values, the ocean is under immense pressure from human activities, threatening its ability to support human well-being, with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities. The majority of these pressures come from economic activities related to the ocean (“ocean economy”) such as fishing, aquaculture, coastal development, and shipping. Globally the ocean economy is worth over $4t AUD/yr and is expanding at twice the rate of the mainstream economy. At the same time, the gap in funding to protect and manage ocean health is at least $266b AUD/year and growing rapidly. Not only does this put the future of the ocean at risk, it also risks the entire global economy: over two-thirds of all publicly listed companies are at risk due to ocean decline.

Investing a sustainable ocean economy (SOE) however can reduce economic losses by $8t AUD by 2037, yield six times more food and create 12 million new jobs by 2030. In a SOE, ocean health and ocean wealth are held in balance, and sufficient and durable finance for the management of ocean health is provided from the SOE. Despite clear evidence that achieving SOE will be better economically, ecologically and socially, market barriers hinder the transition. Key market barriers include inadequate policies, funding, capacities, and pipelines of investable SOE deals.

This talk will dive into the global efforts to align capital flows with SDG 14.

Dr. Dennis Fritsch is focusing on ocean finance and the blue economy at Minderoo Foundation. Previously, he led the United Nations’ Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative, bringing together banks, insurers, and investors to align their activities with a sustainable ocean economy and SDG 14 – Life Below Water. Before, he established the research department at Responsible Investor, focusing on investor perspectives on Blue Economy and biodiversity. He further supported the European Commission’s BlueInvest Fund and BLUE Marine Foundation, alongside being selected as a Protect.Blue Wavemaker 2023 and for the pool of experts to contribute to the UN’s 3rd World Ocean Assessment (WOA III).

Location

On-site: TUM Main Campus
Room: N 1080 – Lecture Hall August-Föppl
Floor: 0 (ZG)
Building: 0101 N1 (U-Trakt) – North area
Location: Theresienstraße 90, 80333 Munich

Online: Zoom (link to be announced soon)
Webinar-ID:
Password:

Contact us!

rivo@fs.tum.de

History of the Environmental Lecture Series

The lecture series on the environment is an interdisciplinary, public lecture series organised by the Environmental Department of the Student Union of the TU Munich. It is organised by TU Munich students on a voluntary basis.

Speakers have been giving lectures on the topic of sustainability since 1985. This includes, for example, technical environmental protection, health, consumer and climate protection. In this way, it offers both students and teachers at the TU Munich, as well as the non-university public, the opportunity to learn about and discuss these topics and research results at a scientific level.

The speakers from research, associations, authorities and companies will be happy to answer questions from the audience after the lecture; the slides of the lectures, and in some cases the video recordings themselves, will be made available – if available – on our website. In the 40 years of its existence, more than 480 lectures have been organised so far.

In the meantime, the lecture series on the environment has become a regular part of the TU’s lecture programme and is supported, among others, by the management of the TU Munich, the Munich Center for Technology in Society and the KHG of the TU Munich. The lecture series on the environment is a partner of the BNB, the “Alliance for Sustainability in Bavaria”. In addition, some lectures are held in cooperation with the Environmental Academy and the Munich Forum for Sustainability.

 

Check out our trailer! 😉

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Our previous lecture series

Watch our previous recorded lectures here!

Poster
RiVo SS23 Poster
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