WTUC Parallel session 2.2: Environment, Social and Governance for Planetary Health
Thursday 3 October 202410:30 – 12:30
Persada Convention Centre
Planetary Health: ‘Alliances for Diplomacy: Harnessing University Collaborations for Planetary Health’
Sub-themes in focus – sharing global perspectives: Environment, Social and Governance for Planetary Health
What: Round Table Discussion: Parallel Session
Overview: In these sessions we will explore the sub-themes for the Congress through a range of short presentations leading into round table discussions.
Each parallel session will have a Chair to facilitate the discussion and we hope the conversations might spark areas for future WTUN collaboration and workstream developments.
Chair: To Be Confirmed
Speakers:
- Professor Engobo Emeseh, Head of School of Law, University of Bradford
- Dr Kasemsan Manomaiphiboon, Lecturer, The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
- TBC
Professor Engobo Emeseh
‘Education for Sustainable Development: Imperative and Challenges for Higher Education Institutions’
The Environmental, Social and Governance framework has emerged as a set of standards to measure the impact of businesses on the environment and society. Implementing ESG requires competent practitioners. Education for sustainable development (ESD) is one of the key pillars of the global sustainable development agenda which will help address the competence gap in ESG practitioners. ESD, which encompasses formal and informal education, seeks to achieve transformative changes at all levels to engender planetary health. ESD implementation requires integrating diverse perspectives and communities of practice. In this regard, universities are uniquely positioned to adopt a holistic approach to incorporate sustainability in their operations, curriculum, research and wider engagement activities. This will require a move away from traditional siloed disciplinary approaches that is better suited to addressing the complex development challenges in the Anthropocene. This paper explores the imperative and challenges for future-proofing the higher education curriculum within the context of ESD.
Dr Kasemsan Manomaiphiboon
‘Urban air quality in Greater Bangkok from an academic viewpoint: Status, recent progress, and challenges’
Greater Bangkok (GBK) represents one of the largest urban agglomerations in Southeast Asia. Like many large cities, air pollution is often a significant issue. GBK is known to encounter high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and also ozone (O3) but to a lesser degree, caused by emissions from various sources. Unfavorable weather conditions may worsen air quality, causing pollutants to accumulate and stay harmful for an extended period. New stricter safe limits of PM2.5 has been recently issued by the Thai government, following the guideline of the World Health Organization (WHO) for better health protection. Public awareness of health impacts has increased in Thailand with time due to substantial efforts made on air quality monitoring, health advisories, and exposure reduction measures. Nevertheless, challenges still exist, requiring local and regional cooperation to mitigate the problem, with a focus on emission reduction in the on-road transport, industries, and agriculture (due to biomass burning) sectors. From an academic viewpoint, this talk aims to share relevant information and offer thoughts related to the issue, underlining a continued need of improved science with clarity for better policy making and air quality management, and an opportunity to jointly view air quality, climate change, and clean energy more closely.
Professor Engobo Emeseh
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kasemsan Manomaiphiboon