Conference Agenda

Sustainable development discourse has emphasized the joint importance of environmental and development agendas at least since its original definition by the Brundtland Commission. Increasingly, the global narrative has come to see the two as intrinsically co-constitutive. This is also reflected in popular notions like just transitions and just transformative change, as well as in the Earth System Boundaries put forward by the Earth Commission. At the same time, and beyond all too positive-optimistic attitudes, these notions are also fraught with tensions. After all, they are multi-interpretable and highlight problematic relations of spatial and temporal injustice and inequity. What transforms, what makes it ‘just’, and whose development are we really talking about? Because of such questions, it is far from self-evident how research in and practice of earth system governance could advance sustainable development going forward. Now is also an especially opportune time to address these questions, as talks on a post-2030/post-SDG sustainable development agenda are beginning to start. For instance, an SDG Summit will be held in September 2023 during the UN General Assembly focused on accelerating action towards meeting the SDGs in 2030. This panel discussion seeks to open up a transdisciplinary dialogue to articulate what is at stake for a post-2030 sustainable development agenda, and to discuss how actors in science, policy and society can contribute.

Speakers:

Joyeeta Gupta

Prof. Dr Joyeeta Gutpa is professor of environment and development in the global south at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the University of Amsterdam and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. She is also co-chair of the Earth Commission. In 2023 she was awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest award in Dutch academia, for her work on how issues connected with the inequitable distribution of the effects of climate change can be resolved through good governance.

Daniëlle Hirsch

Daniëlle Hirsch is director of Both ENDS, a Dutch NGO working on a sustainable, fair and inclusive world through collaborating with environmental justice groups in the majority world/Global South. She is also standing as a candidate in the Dutch parliamentary elections to be held 22 November.

Sandra Pellegrom

Sandra Pellegrom is the Dutch National Coordinator for the SDGs. In this role she promotes national implementation of the SDGs in and by the Netherlands. She works closely with other ministries and organizations within the central government, as well as with the broad SDG movement in the Netherlands, including businesses, municipalities and provinces, NGOs, youth organizations, knowledge and educational institutions.

Sebastien Treyer

Sébastien Treyer is Executive Director of IDDRI. He is also Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and member of the Lead Faculty of the Earth System Governance Network.

Frank Biermann

Frank Biermann is professor of Global Sustainability Governance with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He was the founder and first chair (2008-2018) of the Earth System Governance Project. In the ERC Advanced Grant ‘GlobalGoals’ project he led a team to investigate whether, to what extent, and why (not), the SDGs had any political effects so far, published as The Political Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals (Cambridge UP, 2022).