This became the key topic discussed at the All-Russian Conference “Russia’s sustainable development: possibilities, threats and risks” held at RSUH on December 5.
Vice-Rector Arkhipova said in the welcoming speech: “As early as 1987 the UN Commission defined sustainable development as the kind of progress that should benefit the present generations without putting at risk the generations yet to come. Today we will be talking about 170 actions and 17 goals that are quoted in the Concept of Sustainable Development written in the 2015 UN document on sustainable development goals. The most important thing for us presently is prognosis for the future”.
Dr. Antonov, Head of the RANS Section of the Interdisciplinary Ecology and Economic Systemic Studies, said in the welcoming speech: “The sustainable development issues ought to be solved on the basis of the evaluation of economic, social and ecological potentials … and that’s where the academic community must play a significant role. I am sure that this Conference will give us an opportunity to create recommendations for the executive bodies thus making regional decisions more logical and well-founded”.
The Conference was attended by experts from MSU, MGIMO, Financial University under the Government of the RF, the RANS, State Management University, International University, Ministry of Education, municipal bodies, and other educational organizations.
The issues discussed were criteria and indicators of sustainable development, raw-materials export model of development, training the cadre, statutes and regulations for sustainable development, questions of managements, national projects, and others.
The plenary session began with a presentations made by Dr. Vladimir Zakharov, Head of the Center for Sustainable Development and Ecosystem Health at the RANS, in which he said that the ecological issues and considerations are part of the foundations for development of innovations, which makes such issues priorities in the field of education and culture. He also said that the successful realization of the environment-related projects is only possible when accompanied by a high level of ecological awareness of the population, which, in turn, hinged on ecological education. This means, according to Dr. Zakharov, a new attitude to the very subject of ecology, which has to become a part of personal outlook and culture.
Dr. Sergey Bobylev, Chair of the Department of Economics and Management of Natural Resources of the School of Economics of MSU, said in his presentation that, as it was impossible to precisely define and forecast the benefits, harm and the price the environment would have to pay to progress, what needed to be done was to make the projects increasingly more green-friendly. This should lead to the refinement of methodology for the project-based approach to sustainable development and to making the eco-friendly projects more effective. And, concluded Dr. Bobylev, this will necessitate the need to take into adequate consideration the principles of the new economy, which will accelerate the ecologization of Russian economy.
