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TNEP
Newspaper Articles
Le
Mauricien (23 December 2008)
DÉVELOPPEMENT
DURABLE Du 5 au 7 janvier
L'UTM
accueille une conférence internationale d'envergure
Du 5 au 7 janvier prochain, l'University of Technology,
Mauritius (UTM), organise en collaboration avec Common
Ground Publishing (spécialisée dans
l'organisation de conférences universitaires
de haut niveau) la 5e édition de la Conférence
Internationale sur la Durabilité environnementale,
culturelle, économique et sociale.
"C'est une première à Maurice,
et nous sommes d'autant plus heureux que l'organisation
de cette conférence cadre bien avec le projet
Maurice Île Durable que le gouvernement se propose
de réaliser", a confié au
Mauricien le nouveau directeur de l'UTM,
Dharam Fookeer. "Nous nous attendons à
avoir la participation de conférenciers d'envergure
dans le domaine du tourisme et du développement
durable, notamment", a-t-il ajouté.
Il n'a pas souhaité toutefois en dire davantage.
Selon certaines sources, cette conférence de
haut niveau vise à aborder de façon
multidisciplinaire les champs de recherches et des
perspectives permettant d'appréhender les questions
relatives au développement durable. Selon la
définition donnée en 1987 par Gro Harlem
Brundtland, (alors premier ministre de Norvège)
dans son rapport Our common future pour le compte
de la Commission des Nations unies sur l'environnement
et le développement, le développement
durable est un "développement qui
s'efforce de répondre aux besoins du présent,
sans compromettre la capacité des générations
futures à répondre aux leurs".
Cette Fifth International
Conference on Environment, Cultural, Economic and
Social Sustainability donnera l'occasion
à d'éminents conférenciers d'intervenir
sur le sujet. Ils auront chacun la possibilité
de présenter un papier de 30 minutes et de
participer dans des ateliers de 60 minutes, ou encore
à participer dans des présentations
conjointes de 90 minutes. Se tiendront parallèlement
aux sessions plénières, des discussions
de groupes sur divers sujets. Des participations virtuelles,
à travers vidéoconférences, seront
également possibles.
Parmi les conférenciers attendus figurent notamment
Tom Baun, Davina Boyd, Cheryl Desha et le Mauricien
Ramesh Durbarry.
Ramesh Durbarry (PhD), Associate Professor à
l'UTM, entreprend actuellement des recherches sur
le tourisme et le voyage.
Pour sa part, Cheryl Desha a été élu
en 2005 Australian Young Engineer. Education Director
pour le Natural Edge Project, elle enseigne le développement
durable. Elle est aussi membre de l'International
Advisory Panel pour l'International Journal of Sustainability
in Higher Education.
Spécialiste du développement des capacités,
Davina Boyd est la lauréate 2008 de l'International
Award for Excellence in the area of Environmental,
Cutural, Economic and Social Sustainability.
Tom Baum, professeur en l'International Tourism, and
Hospitality Management (University of Strathclyde
à Glasgow), travaille principalement dans l'application
des principes de développement durable dans
l'emploi, plus particulièrement dans les pays
en développement et les Etats insulaires. Il
a contribué à la littérature
embryonnaire dans ce domaine du tourisme.
The
Courier-Mail Brisbane (01 August 2007)
Karlson
Hargroves, Michael Smith and Cheryl Desha argue sustainable
growth also paves the path to economic growth.
WE OFTEN hear discussions about how ‘‘growth’’
is not good for the environment. Southeast Queensland
is Australia’s fastest-growing region, attracting
an average 5,000 new residents each year over the
past two decades. We are also a region experiencing
significant ‘‘growing pains’’
including urban sprawl, traffic congestion, smog and
water pollution.
However, there is good news about how ‘‘growth’’
can be used to improve our predicament. Growth can
mean different things to different people, which often
causes confusion in debates across government, business
and the community. It is important to know just what
we mean so we can have useful discussions. While economic
growth refers to increasing economic activity, often
described using terms like gross domestic product,
physical growth is about increasing things like population
and our use of resources. So, can we keep growing
our economy (economic growth) while managing our population
growth and reducing our use of resources (physical
growth)?
Growth can be good if it is properly planned, and
there are a number of examples from around the planet
that show this can be done. Thirty-five years ago,
international
best-seller Limits to Growth documented how we could
live within the carrying capacity of our planet. Twenty
years ago, a publication by the World Commission on
Environment
and Development, Our Common Future (also known as
the Brundtland Report), gave us more than just a definition
of sustainable development — it discussed how
it is possible to separate, or ‘‘decouple’’,
economic growth from negative environmental and social
impacts. Decoupling can be achieved for all sorts
of things in creative and profitable ways that can
also grow the economy — from green subdivisions
that cool our neighbourhoods, improve biodiversity
and create clean air, to replacing toxic ingredients
in products that we use through green chemistry and
design.
One such decoupling opportunity for southeast Queensland
involves investing in proven sustainable transport
approaches. A 1999 report to the World Bank showed
those cities
investing in sustainable urban design and transport
(ie reducing the use of private car use) have higher
economic growth. Leading Australian author Peter Newman
states: ‘‘Our study found that those cities
which emphasise walking, cycling and public transport
are healthier financially and spend less of their
wealth on transport costs. Our data would really question
that freeway building has any economic rationale;
unless you’re building up the rail system (as
in Perth) you are not going to help it economically.
As
soon as you put in big roads then you create a market
for city sprawl and this is very expensive.’’
Perhaps we are far from being ‘‘decoupled’’
with regard to the way we choose to travel within
our region, in particular our metropolitan areas.
Queensland Transport figures show the total kilometres
travelled by cars in southeast Queensland is growing
much
faster than the region’s population. This is
clearly unsustainable and our car-oriented urban development
does not appear to work — for the community,
business or the environment. As the region continues
to grow, and as we consider what future
population can be accommodated, there are many other
ways we can decouple economic growth from physical
growth, for example in water supply, energy use, food
production and housing and construction. The upcoming
public forum on What price
growth? will certainly provide opportunity to consider
this topic.
The authors’ publication, The
Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities,
Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century,
(Earthscan) and website provide many examples of successful
decoupling across government and business. The team
is working on a publication, Cents and Sustainability
(to be published in 2008) outlining success stories
from around the world and in Australia where business,
organisations, cities and nations have achieved significant
decoupling as a 20-year response to Our Common Future.
Karlson ‘‘Charlie’’ Hargroves,
Michael Smith and Cheryl Desha are authors of The
Natural Edge Project, hosted by Griffith University.
Courier
Mail - Brisbane (14 December 2005)
Griffith University School of Environmental Engineering
Lecturer Cheryl Paten has been named Engineers Australia
2005 Young Professional Engineer of the Year. The
Award was for introducing sustainability concepts
into the Griffith engineering curriculum and her involvement
in The Natural Edge Project. This project sees young
engineers and scientists supported by Engineers Australia
and other environment industry sponsors to undertake
environmental sustainability initiatives. Cheryl said
engineers had a responsibility to adopt sustainability
principles because they provided the infrastructure
society needed on a daily basis - from turning on
the tap in the morning to driving home on the highway
in the evening.
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