Peter Salovey signs Joint Statement of Global University Leaders on the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Peter Salovey joined university presidents from 30 countries to announce action on climate change by signing the Joint Statement of Global University Leaders on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is the first time that leading universities across six continents have jointly made a statement on sustainable development goals (SDGs), reaffirming collective commitment of the global higher education community to solidarity, resilience and prosperity.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 SDGs, which are an urgent call for action by all countries.
The virtual forum, which was hosted by Zhejiang University, began an opening ceremony that featured Salovey. He shared Yale’s practices and achievements on SDGs: “The university has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent over the past 15 years, even though the campus square footage has increased significantly.”
The opening was followed by three sessions. In the first session, speakers explored the approaches to educating for a sustainable future. In the second, they examined the importance of advancing scientific collaborations in addressing grand challenges, and in the final, speakers took a look into their own campuses and called on universities to transform themselves into living labs that would serve as scalable sustainable testbeds.
The event was livestreamed to over one million viewers around the globe in hope that the forum would help to forge a dialogue on paths forward as the world faces a pressing need to increase efforts to deliver on the 2030 Agenda.
Learn more about the event’s webpage here or read the Yale Daily News’ coverage of the event here.