One Hundred ICTA-UAB Researchers Addressed the Main Environmental Challenges of Today and Tomorrow
ICTA-UAB hosted the 2nd Spring Symposium at the UAB campus
One hundred international scientists from the Institut de Ciència I Tecnologia Ambientals of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) took part in the 2nd ICTA-UAB Spring Symposium, held on the 16th and 17th of May at the Faculty of Sciences and at the headquarters of the ICTA-UAB, in the Bellaterra campus. The event addressed the main environmental challenges that society must face today and in the future. It was focused on the identification of these environmental challenges, how to address them and how the results derived from scientific research can be transformed into effective policies. The attendees, mostly of them belonging to this research centre dedicated to studying the causes of environmental problems, presented the main novelties of their studies. The papers presented covered a wide range of scientific disciplines, from environmental engineering to ecological economics, and from climate modeling to ecological anthropology.
Through some forty oral presentations, the researchers of the ICTA-UAB showed that the approach to environmental issues must be carried out from different knowledge areas. With the environmental concern as a backdrop, this symposium presented scientific advances in such diverse topics as red coral conservation, low carbon economy, indigenous knowledge of climate change, circular economy, environmental conflicts, water-food-energy nexus, ocean acidification, urban food production, economic degrowth, biodiversity conservation policies, urban green spaces, forests and human health interaction, pollution due to microplastics on island beaches, carbon pricing, urban environmental justice, open access to scholarly communication, global model of marine fishery, agroecological knowledge conservation and the transition towards a new energetic system.
Three outstanding conferences included the participation of researchers working in leading international centres in environmental research. Marina Fischer-Kowalski, founder of the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna, talked about the intersections and contradictions of the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Agreements; Thomas Pedersen, former director of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, tackled the push and pull of acting on global warming, and Robert Ayres, founder of the Center for the Management of Environmental Resources (INSEAD), explored how to overcome institutional barriers in energy saving. In addition, they participated in a round table on where environmental research is going and how to overcome the challenges.
Prizes
Several prizes were awarded to the best communications. Aljoša Slameršak was awarded the best oral presentation “Will negative emissions save us from catastrophic climate change?", and Petra Benyei with “The potential of citizen science school programs to reverse Traditional Agroecological Knowledge’s erosion: a case study in Catalonia” and Roberta Johnson with “Ocean acidification, not warming, may reduce pteropod abundance in the Mediterranean Sea” were awarded the best pitch presentation. The best-evaluated poster by the attendants was “Improving energy buildings metabolism: integrated rooftop greenhouses” by Joan Muñoz. Veronica Arcas won the social activity consisting in an original bingo.
More pictures here
Book of abstracts here
Posters here