Global sustainability conference comes to Melbourne

A major international conference co-hosted by the UN Global Cities Programme and the Global Cities Research Institute at RMIT University is set to challenge and transform the way we think about sustainability.

People and the Planet 2013 (2-4 July) will feature 130 presentations from top speakers across nine interconnecting research themes. It will be held at Storey Hall at RMIT University, Melbourne.

The Director of the Global Cities Research Institute, Professor Paul James, said the conference would bring together academia, civil society, urban governance and business to tackle the challenge of sustainability.

“Instead of treating sustainability as a narrow ecological question framed by business as usual, People and the Planet addresses the human condition across the integrated domains of economics, ecology, politics and culture,” Professor James said.

“What does it mean to be responsible for the future of our planet? How can we best work collaboratively across those different constituencies to address basic issues of sustainability?

”And finally, what is to be done? This is not to reduce the future to technical solutions, but rather to debate how we are going to act now to work towards an imagined future.”

The conference will cover themes including urban, community, cultural and corporate sustainability, climate change adaptation, human security and disaster, globalisation and culture, and sustainable urban regional futures.

Keynote speakers include Joyati Das (World Vision), Peter Mandaville (former advisor to Hillary Clinton), Jerry Harris (Global Studies Association of North America), Eric Herring (University of Bristol), Robert Manne (La Trobe University) and Don Watson (speechwriter and award-winning author).

Early bird registration is available until 10 May at http://tinyurl.com/pandpregister.