14 DAY TRIAL // As of yesterday, Rio de Janeiro hosts the Global Research Forum on Sustainable Production and Consumption.
This meeting of the green-minds focuses on discussing what it is that we presently know about sustainable development and how this knowledge can be put to good use in the future.
The workshop, which is expected to last until de 15th of June, is by invitation only, and around 50 researchers are to bring their contribution to this event.
Apparently, the forum is to tackle several major issues.
First of all, as professor Philip Vergragt from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands explains, there is a need to try and put together all of the findings made in the field of sustainable production and consumption (SPC) throughout the past decades.
The end-goal is to establish exactly which of these bits and pieces of information are actually valuable and can be used to improve on our current interactions with the natural world.
Secondly, the specialists here will try and determine exactly what green-oriented strategies can be elaborated on account of the said information. In other words: what can we do with what we know?
Finally, it is necessary that we also investigate how various cultural or economic aspects can influence SPC. Thus, it was explained that national attitudes towards environmental issues and individual consumption patterns could impact SPC.
According to SciDev.Net, professor Philip Vergragt argues that such a forum is both welcomed and necessary because “We need to stake stock of what we know in terms of research. The research is splintered among different disciplines and different networks.”
Interestingly enough, this forum takes place right before the Rio+20 Earth Summit, during which national and international leaders will discuss how sustainable development can help us overcome what is gradually turning into a global financial and environmental crisis.