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Daily CSR
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‘TWI2050’ Initiative For A Post Pandemic Sustainable Future



07/14/2020

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic provides potential opportunities and challenges demonstrating “system-wide weaknesses” and the possibilities to create a sustainable future in a post pandemic world.


Dailycsr.com – 14 July 2020 – On one hand, the world has been disrupted from its status quo due to the COVID-19 pandemic while on the other hand the situation is presenting new opportunities for innovating the “way we live and work”. In the latest report of “The World in 2050”, in short TWI2050, initiative, the crisis could be an opportunity to build “sustainable societies with higher levels of wellbeing for all”.
 
This marks the third report of “TWI2050 initiative” which has been titled as the “Innovations for Sustainability: Pathways to an efficient and sufficient post-pandemic future”. The above mentioned report evaluates the “positive potential benefits” of innovation towards sustainable development. Besides, it also underscores the “potential negative impacts” along with the challenges that stopping us from going forward.
 
Furthermore, it also mentions the strategies for harnessing sustainable innovation focussed on “efficiency and sufficiency in providing services to people” while stressing particularly on “human wellbeing”. In the words of the Director of “TWI2050 and IIASA Emeritus Research Scholar”, Nebojsa Nakicenovic:
“The transformation to a sustainable future is achievable--we have the knowledge, means, and capacity, despite the magnitude of the challenge and the current unsustainable direction of development, additionally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that this report will provide policy- and decision makers around the world with invaluable new knowledge to inform action and commitment toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in these interesting and challenging times”.
 
With only a decade at hand to meet the deadline for the “2030 Agenda” and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the authors of the report feels that the governments across the world are lagging behind in mobilising “necessary resources” and effecting “required policy and structural changes” to achieve the targets. The commitment as well as the cooperation of the world that was seen while setting up the “2030 Agenda” needs to be deepened and continued even “during this critical implementation phase”.
 
Likewise, the said report proposes “a way forward toward a sustainable future in a 'new' post COVID-19 world”.  As a result, it highlights, the requirement of “better governance for integrated SDG implementation, inclusive political institutions, and the importance of science, technology, and innovation” if the world was to attain “possible solutions” for a sustainable future. The report had already mentioned “six transformation” areas in its “2018 report”, namely human capacity, demography and health; consumption and production; decarbonization and energy; food, biosphere, and water; smart cities; and the digital revolution”.
 
While, the Director of the “Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research”, Johan Rockström commented:
“The current rate and direction of innovation is insufficient, in part due to a relatively narrow focus on technology innovation without also addressing societal, institutional, cultural, and governance innovation. It is time to rebalance, so that all dimensions of innovation are promoted simultaneously, while also addressing inequities. In light of the current crisis the world finds itself in as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the launch of this report during the UN High-level Political Forum, is timely”.
 
While, the “IIASA Emeritus Research Scholar”, Arnulf Grubler, added:
“Achieving accelerated change will depend on the world moving away from a supply-driven model of development to one that is low-demand and services-driven, based on efficiency and sufficiency, while also focused on providing wellbeing and decent living standards for all”.
 
In a concluding note, German Development Institute’s the head of the department for “Transformation of Political (Dis-)order”, Julia Leininger:
“We highlight the prioritization and renewal of the science-policy-society interface for evidence-based transformations built on a culture of trust, academic freedom, communication of accurate information, and a reinvigoration of global science organizations, highlighting that transnational crises require global context-sensitive responses. In this regard, investing financial resources and nonmonetary support to assist local and municipal actors and international organizations is key”.
 
 
References:
eurekalert.org