Keynote address delivered at the International Conference on Sustainable Approaches for Green Computing, Economy and Environment, 9 December 2013, Salem (India)

1. A quantum leap to
sustainable development
and competitive growth
Renato Toffanin
Advanced Research Centre for Health, Environment and
Space (Italy)
SAGCEE-13, 9-11 December 2013, Salem, India
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2. Sustainable approaches for green computing,
economy and environment (SAGCE-13)
…
smart power grids
e-waste
green computing
clean technologies
e-healthcare
green market dynamics
corporate governance
renewable energy
benchmarking
carbon foot printing
eco-informatics
climate change product design and innovation
green data centers
ecosystems
environment and social policies
environmental legislation
…
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3. Green economy
The concept of a green economy has become
very popular in sustainability discourses,
particularly in light of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development held
in June 2012
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4. Green economy
There are several definitions of green
economy. However, in its simplest
expression, a green economy is low carbon,
resource efficient and socially inclusive.
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5. Green economy
Different strategies are currently used
worldwide to achieve these goals. For
example, Europe 2020 is the growth
strategy of the European Union (EU)
for this decade.
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6. Europe 2020 strategy
In a rapidly changing world, the EU intends
to become a smart, sustainable and
inclusive economy.
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7. Europe 2020 strategy
Smart through more effective investments in
education, research and innovation.
Sustainable thanks to a decisive move
towards a low-carbon economy.
Inclusive with a strong emphasis on job
creation and poverty reduction.
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8. Europe 2020 strategy
In times of severe economic crisis, the
European Union has set five ambitious
objectives on employment, innovation,
education, social inclusion and
climate/energy to be reached by 2020.
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9. Horizon 2020
Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument
implementing the Innovation Union, a
Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at
securing Europe's global competitiveness.
Running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of
just over €70 billion, the EU’s new
programme for research and innovation is
part of the drive to create new growth and
jobs in Europe.
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10. Knowledge-based society
Research and innovation together with
education represent the key drivers of a
knowledge-based society and they are
commonly referred to as the “knowledge
triangle”.
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11. Knowledge-based society
This new type of society is nowadays needed
to compete and succeed in the changing
economic and political dynamics of the
modern world.
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12. Knowledge-based society
To meet the challenges outlined above, a
number of policy options are suggested across
the multi-faceted scenarios of the knowledge
triangle.
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13. Knowledge-driven global economy
Among those policies, higher education policy
is increasingly important on national agendas.
The widespread recognition that higher
education is a major driver of economic
competitiveness in a knowledge-driven global
economy has made high quality higher
education more important than ever before.
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14. Quality in higher education
Clearly, the rapidly expanding demand for
higher education constitutes a big challenge
for the quality of the higher education system
in developing and emerging countries.
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15. Equity in higher education
Moreover, issues of equity in higher education
in many countries need to become more
prominent in national debates and policy
making. In particular, the question of
differences in participation rates among
groups of students - by gender, ethnicity and
socio-economic status –, should receive more
policy attention.
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16. A quantum leap to sustainable development
Making the quantum leap to a sustainable
development paradigm will depend heavily on
high quality higher education, especially if we
facilitate the access to higher education for
disadvantaged groups.
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17. Contacts
toffanin@arches-centroricerca.org
www.arches-centroricerca.org
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