by Hiroshi Komiyama and Steven Kraines, The University of Tokyo

Vision 2030: roadmap for a sustainable earth

From the book’s introduction:
“Can we humans continue to live and work as we have until now within the resource limits of the earth? And can we sustain the earth’s bountiful resources, including a clean and healthy environment, for generations to come? The goal of this book is to propose a concrete vision of a road to a sustainable future for humanity and the earth. (more…)

AGS Annual Meeting, 17 March 2010, The University of Tokyo, Japan

For some, the Climate Summit in December 2009 was a success for achieving agreement on the Copenhagen Accord; for others it was a complete failure to agree on any basis for post-Kyoto negotiations. The end of the summit left deep uncertainty as to what the basis for international negotiations towards COP-16 was. At the AGS Annual Meeting, we had a panel discussion to evaluate the COP-15 and future options for action on climate change, chaired by Akimasa Sumi, IPCC AR4 Lead-author and professor of the University of Tokyo. The panel of climate change policy researchers gave perspectives from Japan, the US, Switzerland and the European Union, and China – together responsible for 60% of global carbon emissions. (more…)

Global Change and Sustainability: Pathways to the Sustainable Society in 2050
17-19 March 2010, The University of Tokyo, Japan

The main themes of the AGS Annual Meeting 2010 were: Mitigation and adaptation strategy to climate change and demographic change; Sustainable city-regions; Energy pathways to the future: smart grid and smart infrastructure; Information exchange and communication between academia and society. The meeting included discussions of the post-COP 15 situation and CO2 reduction, venture capital, legal frameworks, energy pathways to the low carbon society, adaptation to climate change, food and water sustainability, and pathways to sustainable urban futures. (more…)

16-20 March 2010, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Text by Yoshimasa Takahashi and Susanne Droescher

The AGS-UT Student Community hosted an international student workshop in Tokyo in March 2010. Our goal was to discuss and propose solutions for sustainability problems in Asia and to launch a sustainability network among Asian students. 50 students from Bhutan, China, India, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other Asian countries, as well as Japan, were joined by students from the other AGS universities (ETH, MIT and Chalmers). (more…)

In this report, two ETH Zurich students have carried out a careful investigation of the sustainability impacts of the AGS AM2009
Download the report herehttp://theags.org/education/report-on-organising-conferences-sustainably-implementing-sustainability-at-conferences

The poster session of the AGS Annual Meeting 2010 featured 44 posters addressing energy and mobility in urban areas, pro-poor urban futures, sustainable building and construction, challenges for business and politics, urban ecology and natural resources, urban design and sustainability/visions of future cities, education for sustainability, student activities for sustainability, and food and water. Five posters were awarded best poster certificates.

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The poster session with 126 posters highlighted a wide range of innovative solutions to questions of energy, mobility, water and urban agriculture, policy and governance, sustainable construction, education for sustainable development, and urban sustainability indicators. Six poster prizes and three runner-up prizes were awarded according to the six poster session themes. Most of the winners were PhD students. Click on the title to read the abstract.
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Vision 2050 was a two year project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) involving 29 of their member companies. The focus is on “the role of business for tomorrow’s constrained but sustainable world”. Participating companies contributed through workshops, virtual working groups and feedback throughout the project. The final report was presented at the World CEO Forum in New Delhi, India, in February 2010. (more…)

IPoS 2009 – “Food, Energy and Water”
The IPoS 2009 summer session was held in Rayong Province, Thailand, 1-12 August. The theme was “Food, Energy and Water”. These are closely related with each other. Water and energy are necessary for food production. Energy can be produced either by growing crops (as energy crops) using water or by using water in hydropower stations. Using large amounts of energy, fresh water can be gained from seawater through desalination, or agricultural water use can be avoided by importing food from other countries (the virtual water trade). In this way, relationships among food, energy and water are very complicated and differ from place to place depending on local conditions. (more…)

Scenarios for assessing profitability and carbon balances of energy investments in industry

The performance of future or long-term energy investments at industrial sites can be evaluated using consistent scenarios. By using a number of different scenarios that outline possible cornerstones of the future energy market, robust investments can be identified and the climate benefit can be evaluated. (more…)