5/6 Dec: The "Water Footprint" at the Science Platform Sustainability 2030

On 5 and 6 December 2019, the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 will hold to its first annual conference in Berlin. GRoW researchers will present the ‘water footprint’ concept as a strategy for the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The theme of the conference is ‘Sustainable Development: A Matter of Science. Innovations and Impulses for the German Sustainability Strategy’. Participants from politics, research, business and civil society will present and discuss the latest results of the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 (wpn2030) and explore options for future collaboration.

Sustainable development must be a higher political priority

The motivation for the conference: the fact that the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs remains a long way off. Sustainable development needs to be a higher political priority and ideas from science and research are necessary to achieving that goal.

Focus: water footprint

GRoW will do its part: on behalf of GRoWnet, adelphi will present the funding programme Water as a Global Resource (GRoW) – mentioned in the German Sustainability Strategy (DNS) as a national contribution to achieving SDG 6 – at the end of the first day of the conference. GRoW researchers from the WELLE and InoCottonGROW projects will present some of their project insights with a special focus on the concept of water footprint.

Presenting a paper with recommendations to the Federal Government

On the second day of the conference, wpn2030 will hand over recommendations for action to the Federal Government in the form of a paper that aims to strengthen and further develop the DNS. GRoW contributed to this paper with input that illustrates how worldwide pressure on water resources from imports into Germany could be systematically recorded and assessed. Such trade-offs between different environmental impacts cannot be mapped with the current indicators of the DNS. The methods developed by GRoW scientists in the concepts of the water footprint and virtual water can help move towards more sustainable production and consumption structures in the Global South – without reducing the trading opportunities of the countries involved.

Visit the ‘Global Resource Water’ theme island

GRoW cordially invites everyone to visit the theme island on 5 December at 6:15 pm to discuss ideas for the effective implementation of the SDGs, as well as participation in the future work of the science platform. The conference will take place in Berlin at the Umweltforum, Pufendorfstraße 11, and at Neue Mälzerei, Friedenstraße 91.

The complete conference programme is available here and more information on the conference can be found here (in German only).