Indian academia and students will focus on strengthening India’s net-zero commitment through PACT2030, which is an annual conclave, beginning this year to make a first-of-its-kind declaration on sustainable development and pledge to be change-makers.
QS I-GAUGE is the Indian agency of London based QS which releases the coveted world university rankings every year. With the PACT2030, QS will be the core behind the conclave every year which will be co-hosted by academic institutions.
The first conclave will be held between January 17 and 19, 2022, in Goa, which is expected to witness over 100 acclaimed leaders of prestigious universities, schools, and other academic institutions converging to make a first-of-its-kind and historic declaration on sustainable development and promise to be the change-makers.
The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun and Kalasalingam University, Tamil Nadu, will co-host the conclave. The carbon footprint from this event will be offset by assisting climate protection projects such as a 20 MW Biomass Power Project in Chhattisgarh.
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Following PM Modi's announcement at COP23, Ashwin Fernandes, Director for QS I-GAUGE, said that an urgent requirement was felt within the Indian academic community to contribute and accelerate the contribution and leadership of educational institutes to this essential goal, the country has decided to adopt a net-zero emissions target – by 2070.
Fernandes said that educational institutions play a significant role in assisting society to accomplish the Global Sustainable Development Goals via leadership, research, teaching and learning, campus operations, and community service.
Since the living laboratories of transformation and innovation, the academic engagement, leadership, commitment, partnerships, and exemplar models are important to authorize the future generations, advance SDGs’ progress, and foster a resilient and equitable future, he said.
Further, to increase the efforts of India becoming net-zero, and to champion stronger adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), a social movement called PACT2030 was constituted, culminating many discussions of QS I-GAUGE and academic institutions.
Pledge, Act, Change, Transform (PACT) 2030, plans to allow the educational institutions to bring to student's life sustainable ideas and to believe beyond their boundaries and care for the world.
Being a long-term vision, PACT2030 is a scalable social model, which represents local leadership on global platforms and gathers all the like-minded leaders, founders and heads, and chancellors of academic institutions, policymakers, and the government to involve all the intelligent forces to create a better world.
By ensuring that the academic leaders dedicate themselves to the long term vision of change for a better world, the conference will champion a change, Fernandez said.
In the first summit of PACT 2030, the academic engagement and leadership would be nurtured around SDGs 4 and 11 for the academia to actively initiate new commitments and multi-stakeholder partnerships.
It would contribute to the goals of quality education and sustainable cities and communities via sustainable campuses and their outreach activities. Further, it would pave the way to the holistic engagement of academia in global sustainable development.
One of its kind national-level school programs named as PACT-Star will also be organised at the PACT2030 conclave. PACT-Star is an awards initiative that will welcome all the full-time registered students of classes 9 to 12 at any school in India in order to display their ideas on any of the 17 SDGs.
The students from Class 9 to 12 are eligible to submit their projects and unique ideas which have a direct impact on the community where the student lives. It should be noted that there's no fee to submit the entries. 10 students and their ideas will be selected, who will receive a fully paid trip to the PACT2030 conclave in Goa.
During their visit to the conclave, the shortlisted students will have to present their ideas in front of the academic leaders. The students whose ideas will attract the leaders will get an opportunity to win funding of up to INR 1 Lakh per project.
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