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Donostia Sustainability Forum 2020 presents its programme

<p> Donostia Sustainability Forum is an international platform for training, dissemination and proposals concerning the overall health of the planet.</p>

Many UPV/EHU summer courses have been devoted to analysing the climate crisis and its consequences. The initiative by the BBVA foundation and the UPV/EHU supper course foundation with the support of Basque institutions (the Basque government department of the Environment through IHOBE, Gipuzkoa provincial authority through Naturklima and Donostia/San Sebastián city council) have made it possible to create a specific programme on sustainability within the framework of summer courses at the UPV/EHU. The BBVA Foundation, which for two decades has had one of its preferred focus on sustainability and, in particular, the conservation of biodiversity and climate change, will link its network of experts to the Donostia Sustainability Forum.

From September, we will be offering a series of free online activities open to everybody who is interested:

3rd September. Education is one of the basic pillars of sustainability. The experience of education for all built up by the Khan Academy will be outlined in a conversation between its founder and Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation 2019 Salman Khan and Javier Aizpurua (CFM (CSIC-UPV/EHU), prominent scientist from the Basque Country.

10th September. Rafael Bengoa, a person with international standing in the health world and former adviser to president Obama, will be explaining his thoughts on the topic of sustainable health.

14th September.  José María Moneva, an expert in Organisational Social Responsibility, will be analysing the effects now and in the future of the current pandemic on the achievement of SDGs.

16th September. Matt McGrath, BBC environment correspondent, has become a leading international figure in disseminating the environmental situation of the planet. His work was recognised with the 1st Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication, awarded by the BBVA foundation. The dialogue between Matt McGrath and SCIC researcher and lecturer Pedro Jordano will consider the ecological component of the current pandemic from the point of view of both researchers and communicators.

25th September. The energy transition we are about to embark on will encounter great resistance, but also great opportunities. Enrique Monasterio, head of Development and Innovation at the Basque energy organisation EVE, has a lot to say about this subject.

1st October. The climate crisis is almost certainly what has generated public interest in the field of sustainability. María José Sanz, director of BC3, the Basque climate change centre, is one of the best people to explain the moment we are experiencing and what awaits us in this crisis.

The programme also includes summer courses concerning sustainability.

In the field of environmental sustainability, we will analyse measures to cope with climate change: managing natural resources, conserving biodiversity, the challenge to agriculture, renewable energies, efficient, sustainable construction and mobility for people.

The standpoint of social sustainability leads us to explore the possibilities of environmental education, the values of cooperative work in small towns, the importance of care of the elderly and raising the profile of minority languages and cultures.

Concerning economic sustainability, our discussions will revolve around approaches to ending degrees of inequality and loss of social cohesion with demands for corporate social responsibility and social accounting.

All our options are listed on the website http://www.donostiasustainabilityforum.eus.