As the first Sustainable Development Professor at Yonsei University, UNEP DTU Partnership Director John Christensen is visiting Korea to give lectures at leading knowledge institutions.
During his visit to Korea , John Christensen met yesterday with former UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon and Professor Sohn Myongsei, Executive Director at Institute for Global Engagement & Empowerment (IGEE) to continue talks on collaboration between UNEP DTU Partnership and Yonsei University.
Possible collaboration
Ban Ki-moon was UN Secretary General when the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 and has since co-founded the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, working within the framework of the SDGs to promote peace, women and youth and global education.
As Distinguished Chair Professor at IGEE he is also involved in the institute’s work on promoting implementation of the SDGs.
UNEP DTU Partnership director John Christensen visited the Ban Ki-Moon Foundation for a Better Future in Seoul, where he sat down with Ban Ki-Moon to talk about possibilities for collaboration along with IGEE Executive Director Professor Sohn Myongsei.
Shared vision
The meeting with the former Secretary General of the UN and the Head of IGEE took advantage of the shared visions of both Yonsei University, UNEP DTU Partnership and The Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
All three knowledge institutions share a common goal to contribute to implementing the SDGs around the world, with DTU focusing on the technology that will play an essential role in solving the problems that must be addressed.
Yonsei University launched IGEE in 2017 to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A goal that has now lead to the appointment of several SDG professors, among which John Christensen is the first.
UNEP DTU Partnership director appointed Sustainable Development Professor
DTU has embraced the Sustainable Development Goals, making them the basis for DTU’s research and education and a platform for its future work as well as guidance to promote projects with sustainability targets. As a part of the DTU Management institute, UNEP DTU Partnership is proud to contribute to the university’s overall ambition on SDGs.
UNEP DTU Partnership’s work is focused on the climate action outlined in SDG 13 and working towards access to affordable clean energy, as outlined in SDG 7.
The partnership’s overall vision is to integrate climate action in the development agenda, making it possible for developing countries to prosper using low carbon energy sources.
Yonsei’s first Sustainable Development Professor
John Christensen’s Sustainable Development Professorship at Yonsei University is part of a long-term project to increase educational value on sustainable development.
The major role of the Sustainable Development Professors will be to deliver special lectures, provide ideas and input to research projects, where he can draw on his long career and merits within the fields of climate, energy and sustainable development research.
On this trip to Korea John Christensen has among other things given a lecture at Seoul National University on Climate, Sustainable Development and Transformational Change, and one at Korea University on the energy transition and the emissions gap.
The latter based on UNEP DTU Partnership’s role as coordinator of the UNEP flagship Emissions Gap Report, assessing current national mitigation efforts and ambitions, and how far they are from reaching the Paris Agreement.
