SDRC - (Sustainable Development Research Centre ) :
Sustainable Development Research Centre (SDRC)
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
- the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
- the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."
This contributed to the understanding that sustainable development encompasses a number of areas and highlights sustainability as the idea of environmental, economic and social progress and equity, all within the limits of the world’s natural resources.
Sustainable Development Research Centre
Sustainability at SDRC would be encapsulated in three categories, which are as follows;
- Energy and Environment
- Sustainable Rural Development
- Sustainable Business development
Energy and Environment
Objectives
- Reduce the impact of climate change through the adoption of renewable energy solutions.
- Create awareness and promote renewable energy solutions to overcome the dearth of energy.
- Adopting and propagating means of conserving energy.
In order to mitigate the threats of global warming and climate change, two ways could be adopted. One, by increasing the efficiency of energy use and conserve energy. The other, by gradually changing the structure of the energy system, i.e. by advocating the use of renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, hydropower and biomass, and in the meantime decrease the use of fossil fuels.
The imposing environmental concerns in the world are advocating the rapid transition to renewable resources for generating energy and mitigating carbon dioxide emissions. One cannot now speak of energy without speaking of the environment. The effects on the environment due the conventional practices of producing energy have been adverse. Hence, environmentalist debate and challenge the conventional methods.
Hence, SDRC would be promoting renewable energy solutions to gradually change the structure of energy system or in order words to increase the supply of energy in the system. Moreover, to balance the equation on both sides we would also be working on ways of conserving energy with the concept of energy efficiency.
To create wide spread awareness of ways of conserving energy and becoming efficient in our use of energy, we’ll be conducting seminars and conferences at our host institute and also at other institutes. The recipients could range from students to faculty to corporate sector.
Sustainable Rural Development
Objectives
- Convert villages in the rural district in to sustainable models.
- Development of sustainable solutions for the rural areas.
Under this caption we propagate the idea of converting a village in to a sustainable model village. Sustainability would be brought about by uplifting the socio economic stature of the village through provisions of energy, health conditions, food security, education and entrepreneurial skills. This would be achieved through technological adoption and largely through implicit behavioral changes in the inhabitants of the village to adapt to new ways of living. Since sustainability is the key word hence social mobilization would be the most important characteristic of modeling.
Sustainable Business Development
Objectives
- To provide consultancy services to the industrial sector on energy efficiency and clean development mechanism.
In the public and private industrial sectors, advisory services would be provided on ways of improving operations and processes to achieve energy efficiency in the value chain. Energy efficiency, in turn, would reduce carbon emissions in the environment. Consequently, monetary benefits could be gained through the Clean Development Mechanism.
Appendix
To enhance the understanding of Sustainable Development
All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time.
When you think of the world as a system over space, you grow to understand that air pollution from North America affects air quality in Asia, and that pesticides sprayed in Argentina could harm fish stocks off the coast of Australia.
And when you think of the world as a system over time, you start to realize that the decisions our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect agricultural practice today; and the economic policies we endorse today will have an impact on urban poverty when our children are adults.
We also understand that quality of life is a system, too. It's good to be physically healthy, but what if you are poor and don't have access to education? It's good to have a secure income, but what if the air in your part of the world is unclean? And it's good to have freedom of religious expression, but what if you can't feed your family?
The concept of sustainable development is rooted is this sort of systems thinking. It helps us understand ourselves and our world. The problems we face are complex and serious—and we can't address them in the same way we created them. But we can address them.
It's that basic optimism that motivates IISD's staff, associates and board to innovate for a healthy and meaningful future for this planet and its inhabitants.
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