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Building Sustainable Futures: Global Challenges and Possibilities

Northwestern Buffett’s "Building Sustainable Futures: Global Challenges and Possibilities" webinar series spotlights current events and efforts to reach United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), with a focus on a different UN SDG each quarter.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, almost 80 million people fled war, persecution and conflict in 2019. Millions more continue to suffer duress and oppression in their home countries. Webinars in fall 2020 focused on SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, examining the ways in which existing infrastructures promote injustice, and exploring what we must do to foster peaceful, inclusive, and just societies. 

Climate change is one of the grand challenges of our times. Webinars in winter 2021 focused on SDG 13: Climate Action and spotlight how effective approaches to combatting climate change action requires unprecedented global cooperation and the integration of scientific knowledge. Goal 13 explicitly focuses on action. It tasks governments and other actors with taking “urgent action to combat climate change and its impact.”  These webinars address critical aspects of climate action and offer deeper research-based insights into these issues. Winter 2021 webinars were co-sponsored by the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) and sustainNU.

 The COVID-19 crisis has not only illuminated but dramatically amplified existing global inequalities, both across and within countries. With the poorest and most vulnerable facing ever-greater health, environmental, and economic risks, we must reflect on the historical legacies that created present-day inequities. How do we understand the constantly expanding gaps between the haves and have-nots? And how might we approach addressing them through constructive transnational and intergenerational dialogue?  This spring, Northwestern’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs will focus its Building Sustainable Futures webinar series on UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, exploring the infrastructures upholding today’s ballooning inequalities – and the steps some are taking to build a more egalitarian future. 

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