THE LITTLE-KNOWN SEAT OF LEARNING THAT TACKLES ALL THE BIGGEST ISSUES
UN University works on global problems such as poverty, development and the environment
As diplomats and scientific experts debate the practicalities of the Paris climate change agreement at Cop23 in Germany next month, the UN can call upon one of its most important yet little-known creations for advice and support.
The UN University opened in Tokyo in 1975 and functions mainly as a scientific institute where academics tackle global sustainability and environmental challenges.
Cop23 is this year’s iteration of the UN’s annual climate change conference, which takes place from November 6 to 17 in Bonn. This year the focus will be on looking at ways to best implement the landmark agreement – the Paris Accord – struck two years ago.
“While the Paris Accord deals with the issue of limiting emissions that contribute to climate change, there’s a great deal else that needs to be done on the environment in the developing world,” said Dr David Malone, the university’s rector.
The university is working on hundreds of research projects to find solutions related to all 17 of the UN sustainable development goals.
Preparing for natural hazards is one of them, as climate change strengthens the potential for an unprecedented number of natural hazards across the globe, such as tsunamis, floods, storms and droughts. As these occurrences continue to increase in frequency and intensity, the university says it is crucial to understand what influences them.
Each year, its researchers rank more than 170 countries based on their exposure and vulnerability to natural hazards. This index helps the international community to better understand the drivers of disaster risk to minimise damage and shorten recovery time.
One of the university’s initiatives recently won the UN framework convention on climate change’s momentum for change award for its efforts to bring key actors together to address climate risks and poverty by implementing climate risk insurance for vulnerable people in developing countries. The project enables individuals to sign up for climate risk insurance irrespective of their profession or income level.
Managing e-waste is another university initiative, with 47 million tonnes of toxic electronic rubbish thrown out every year.
That is the same weight as the Pyramid of Giza, 10 Titanics, 30 Empire State buildings and 50 Burj Kalifas combined, every year.
“To help tackle this problem, UNU experts developed the e-waste world map, a website that displays the volumes, flows and environmental impacts of e-waste,” Dr Malone said. “This interactive resource provides clear and impartial data, helping governments and businesses identify major problem areas, better manage e-waste and keep our planet clean.”
At one of the university’s global campuses, in Dresden, Germany, a small group of researchers are working on recycling issues.
“They work on the basic idea that if you integrate water, solar and waste, what can be seen as problems separately can become resources when managed together,” Dr Malone said.
“If you recycle wastewater, you are going to be able to resolve part of your water supply and quality problems.”
Tackling such problems is at the core of the university, which has about 600 professionals and 350 students across its campuses and is far from being a traditional academic institute.
“It’s not programmes in political science or physics, it’s always something specific to challenges in the developing world and where perhaps some research work could be useful,” Dr Malone said. “The UN system has other research institutions, focused on specific issues like social policy in Geneva, but it’s just on one issue.
“Many of the issues we work on, there are scientists in other universities also working on, so our researchers are constantly partnering with scientists and other researchers in much bigger universities in the world.
“But what is unique about us is we’re inside the UN, so we can make available knowledge in forms to the UN system that may be easier for UN colleagues to deal with than your average report or scientific journal, which policymakers often find quite difficult to digest.”
The university’s other locations work on topics such as global health in Kuala Lumpur; natural resource management in Ghana; biotechnology in Venezuela; and globalisation, culture and mobility in Barcelona.
Dr Malone lived in the Middle East in the mid-1960s, at a time when he said the Arabian Gulf had very little in terms of higher education.
“What’s interesting about the Gulf is that, today, higher education is a growth sector and many new, very good and strong universities have been opening up,” he said.
“This is very promising, the Gulf refashioning itself successfully as a knowledge and learning hub. It’s very interesting when you consider that 50 years ago, there was nothing of that going on.”
He said the Gulf today was very different to what it was in the 1960s. “My father was in the diplomatic business at the time ... so we travelled up and down the Arabian coast of the Gulf and to Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
“It was a fascinating childhood. I have vivid memories of the Gulf and it’s done an extraordinary job in reinventing itself in the last 50 years.”
Managing e-waste is another UNU initiative, with 47 million tonnes of electronic rubbish generated every year