The second day of events for the “Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue,” an international conference for sustainable development and action against climate crisis in the Asian region, was held at the Lee Sam-bong Hall of the ECC building on October 28 (Fri.).
The international conference, co-organized by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University and the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, was established in 2015 to accelerate the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals proclaimed by the United Nations in the Asian-Pacific region. Over the two-day event from October 27 to 28, attendees discussed climate change and the achievement of the SDGs, while Ewha hosted the expert and student participation panel on the second day.
The event was attended by President Eun Mee Kim of Ewha Womans University, Chairman Ban Ki-moon of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, Mayor Park Heong-joon of Busan Metropolitan City, and Director Gi-Wook Shin of APARC, alongside world-leading experts in various fields who participated in the four expert panels as keynote speakers, panelists, and moderators. Attendants at the student panels on four themes included master’s degree and Ph.D. students and professors from Korean and international universities including Ewha Womans University, Seoul National University, Korea University, Stanford University, Osaka University, University of Malaya, and De La Salle University.
At the opening session, President Eun Mee Kim remarked, “Today we invited the world’s top experts in each field to examine sustainability from the social, economic and environmental perspectives,” and further noted, “I hope that this event allows us to envision new ideas and reinvigorate our motivation, while reaffirming the urgency of the climate crisis and a sense of hope at the same time.”
The topics of the expert sessions held at the Lee Sam-bong Hall included: Livable, Sustainable Cities; Climate Change, Disaster Risks, and Human Security in Asia; Valuing Nature in Finance for Systems Transformation; and Valuing Nature to Achieve Sustainable Development.
In the student sessions, which were held simultaneously with the expert sessions at B143 of the ECC Building, participants gave presentations and discussed topics including: Green Financing and Sustainable Investments; Gender Mainstreaming and Climate Governance; Development Cooperation for Sustainable Governance; and Bringing Environmental Solutions to Scale Through a Business and Social Justice Lens. The event ended with a closing session under the theme of “Readying Human Capital for Sustainable Development.”
