Last month the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) were formally adopted by member states of the United Nations. Building on the Millennium Development Goals, these 17 ambitious goals aim to end global poverty, fight injustice and inequality, and ensure environmental sustainability over a 15 year timeframe (2015-2030).
The 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development 2015–30 (United Nations, 2015)
Achieving the SDGs by 2030 will require many sectors to engage, including the geological sciences. Many of the themes within the SDGs are pertinent to geological research and practice. This gives all of us an exciting opportunity to take a leading role in promoting and facilitating responsible Earth stewardship, ensuring sustainable and equitable foundations for future global development. Geology students, educators, researchers, industry professionals, public servants and policymakers can all contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.
This Friday (30th October) we are very pleased to be welcoming 150+ geologists, mainly students and recent graduates, to the 3rd Geology for Global Development (GfGD) Conference ‘Geology and the Sustainable Development Goals’. We believe it to be the first major gathering of geologists anywhere in the world to explore these goals. We stand on the shoulders of many other organisations that have shown a consistent commitment to the practical application of our discipline to addressing challenges of global hardship, inequality and vulnerability. This commendable record must not result in complacency however, or a belief that effectively engaging with development is the responsibility of a few specialist groups or organisations. If we are to effectively serve society over the coming decades, we must all evaluate our roles in eradicating global poverty and facilitating sustainable development.
This Friday we’ll be starting a discussion into what it is that GfGD should be doing to mobilise and equip the geology community to engage with the SDGs. What changes need to be made to geoscience education to prepare geologists to engage? How can we adapt and leverage our research to increase impact in low-income countries? What sort of engagement do we need to have with the private sector and civil society to ensure an understanding of geology is available to local and national development planning?
Our conference is the start of this discussion process, not the end. We hope to expand the conversation into many other forums, countries and continents in the coming months and years.
Read more about our conference: www.tinyurl.com/GfGDConfInfo
