CURRENT UPDATES:

• MIT Sustainability Summit
• Student Sustainability Workshop in Tokyo
• Report on organising conferences sustainably: "Implementing Sustainability at Conferences"
• Students to the COP-15 Climate Summit
• Students to COP-15
• Chalmers WSC-SD Focus Meeting on Education for Sustainable Development
• Carl Justin Kamp joined The Nobel Laureate Meeting
• WSC-SD Student Summit for Sustainability (S3) 2009
• CSS spring seminar 2009 "A Day for a Sustainable Future"
• The University of Tokyo AGS Student Community meet Hillary Clinton

December 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
Students to the COP-15 Climate Summit

The AGS and the World Student Community for Sustainable Development sponsored students to join the COP15 in Copenhagen. These students from diverse backgrounds and countries have shared their opinions and experiences of the Climate Summit here and in the blogs of the WSC-SD and the AGS universities.

Read about their huge store of impressions and encounters, emotions swinging from inspiration to despair and frustration, impromptu encounters with delegates, experts, and indigenous people. Hoping for a FAB- a Fair, Ambitious and legally Binding – climate treaty. Organising workshops and getting together to generate momentum for the ideas of the young generation on how to achieve the low carbon society.

Student reports from the COP-15>>
Report on WSC-SD at the COP-15 – experiences>>

4-7 October, 2009, Göteborg, Sweden
Chalmers WSC-SD Focus Meeting on Education for Sustainable Development
This meeting discussed different approaches to ESD from a student perspective, and how students and student communities can improve the education in sustainable development.
More information and application on the WSC-SD website.

28 June – 3 July 2009, Lindau, Germany
Carl Justin Kamp joined The Nobel Laureate Meeting

The 59th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany was held June 28^th-July 3^rd with the focus area of chemistry. 580 graduate students from 67 countries spent the week with 23 Nobel Laureates from chemistry, physics and physiology/medicine. The schedule was packed with fascinating lectures, smaller discussion groups, cultural and social events, as well as 2 panel discussions on ‘The role and future of chemistry for renewable energy’, and ‘Global warming and sustainability’ with participants including R. Pachauri (IPCC), B. Lomborg, T. Stocker and W. Woomaw. Although the Nobel Prize is awarded to individuals at the top of seemingly narrow scientific fields, the Lindau meeting articulated that multidisciplinary and international approaches are vital in solving large-scale problems, thus motivating the need for groups such as the AGS.

The 59th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany was held June 28^th-July 3^rd with the focus area of chemistry. 23 Nobel Laureates and 580 graduate students from 67 countries spent a week full of lectures and discussions concerning the synergies between science education, fundamental research, sustainable development and our common future.

Link to Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

18 March 2009, Göteborg
Chalmers Students for Sustainability (CSS) spring seminar 2009 “A Day for a Sustainable Future”

The seminar started by introducing CSS, the World Student Community for Sustainable Development, the AGS, and Chalmers Energy Academy to the students at Chalmers. Then there were talks and debate on Sustainable Energy Futures with invited speakers talking about solar energy, wind power, biogas, alternative transport fuels and carbon capture and storage. CSS invited experts from the Swedish Gas Association on solar energy, Volvo AG and Volvo Aero, Vattenfall-Nuclear Power, and Chalmers and Uppsala universities.

More about CSS activities

17 February 2009, Tokyo
The University of Tokyo AGS Student Community meet Hillary Clinton

When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited The University of Tokyo, she wanted to meet students who could tell her about sustainability and about the challenges of becoming a woman leader in male-dominated Japan. A student from the AGS-UT Student Community relates her experience:

“We shook hands, introduced ourselves to her one by one, and then I explained to her what I do in our AGS student community, for example I was one of the organizers of the Student Summit for Sustainability 2007. In her speech, she talked about gender equality, her alarm for the present state of world affairs, and the abduction issue with North Korea. We all were touched by her powerful performance. The most impressive part was when somebody asked, ‘How can I work as strong as you?’ She answered, ‘The most important advice is to be true to yourself, to do what you believe is important and meaningful in your own life.”

More about the AGS-UT Student Community

25 January – 1 February 2009, Zurich
WSC-SD Student Summit for Sustainability (S³) 2009
“The Realistic Side of the World – Sustainable Development and the Role of Economic and Political Institutions”

The World Student Community for Sustainable Development held its third Student Summit for Sustainability (S³) at the ETH in January 2009, jointly with the AGS Annual Meeting, titled “The Realistic Side of the World – Sustainable Development and the Role of Economic and Political Institutions.”

The S³ asked fascinating and timely questions that are not yet part of the mainstream debate on sustainable development: what drives countries and powers to compete for increasingly scarce resources, and what are the consequences? How does the international financial system hinder the anticipation of natural limits? What incentives other than money steer people’s behavior towards sustainability? How can open source publishing contribute to sustainable development?

Over 90 students from all over the world met in Switzerland – many of them thanks to funds raised by the organizing team from [project 21] students for sustainability of the ETH and University of Zurich – and discussed intensively with their selected experts, as well as having a good time.

More about the Student Summit for Sustainability 2009

Videos of the keynote talks, including Andrea K. Riemer, Bernard Lietaer, Colin Campbell, and Daniele Ganser, at http://www.sss2009.blip.tv/#1910009

September 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa
WSC-SD at the WSSD: “10 YEARS AFTER RIO”
Report on the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002.

In 2002, the AGS supported AGS partners school’s student members to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa. This unique opportunity allowed student delegates to view how the United Nations function “first-hand”.

Download WSCSD2002-WSSD_report