Specials of the WSES 2010
Like at the summits before, students from all over the world will meet at the 2010 WSES in Tuebingen. They will gain inspiration from invited experts in politics, business, academia and civil society. During workshops they will discuss environmental issues to come up with potential solutions.
But there will also be some new aspects and a few specialties at the WSES 2010 that we shortly want to introduce to you in the following:
Topics
The Summit in Tuebingen will focus on social, political and economic aspects of environmental issues. Each day one of the following four topics will be addressed in detail:
- Future Energy Supply
- Sustainable Economy
- Consumption Patterns
- Education for Sustainable Development
Structure
Delegates will be split into three subgroups: politics, economy and civil society. This represents the major players of world affairs. Delegates will choose one of these groups prior to the summit and are asked to stick with it during the whole summit. Groups will discuss daily topics among each other, for example in role plays. First, they shall understand the way their interest group thinks and by what or whom it is influenced. Second, the focus lies on developing strategies how to convince this group to act in a more environmental friendly way. On the first day of the summit each group will be briefed by an expert in the respective field. This provides a basis for well founded discussions and outcomes for each group.
Proposals
There will be two proposals and one synopsis report of the 2010 WSES.
The first proposal is targeted towards decision makers in politics. In December, it will be handed to the COP16 in Mexico by the president of Doshisha University, Professor Hatta. Furthermore, we will hand it to the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Minister of Environment of Germany, Mrs. Heinen-Esser at an official appointment in early October 2010.
The second proposal is addressed to the universities’ presidents and will be written by the participating students from each university. Each student will be trained by professionals during the summit on how to write a proposal to ensure a professional outcome. This individual proposal aims to have a maximal outcome because it is addressed to each University president specifically.
The synopsis report will be created out of all discussions for the delegates, sponsors and other interested people.
Writing session
The first proposal and the synopsis report will be written after the summit by the organizers of the 2010 WSES, WSEN members from Japan and Canada and interested delegates of the 2010 Summit. Delegates who want to be part of the writer’s team can apply for that prior to the summit. They will have the opportunity to stay a few days longer in Tuebingen (1 day free-time and 4 days of writing). All writers are going on a trip to Berlin to pass the proposal to Mrs. Heinen-Esser, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Minister of Environment, Germany.
Carbon offset
We will conduct a visible carbon offset project in Tuebingen which will be held in cooperation between the city of Tuebingen, the University and participating students. Green space from the city will be used to create a vegetable garden maintained by students. You think what is special? The soil is fertilized with biochar – a natural material to enhance growth and store a lot more carbon. Research is carried out by the faculty of biology and geology of the University of Tuebingen to explore the great potentials of this new technology for enhancing the carbon storage capacity of soil. The carbon offset project will be a great contribution to the mitigation of climate change in the long run.
Documentation
To make knowledge accessible to the broad audience, most of the slides, lecture videos, final reports, photos and specific assignments are published. All links can be found on the Result page.
