G-STIC CONFERENCE 2018: TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS FOR THE SDGs
Towards building Science, Technology & Innovation roadmaps
During the 2018 G-STIC conference, 1400 participants from 90 countries discovered real-life examples of market-ready integrated technological solutions for achieving the SDGs, relating to water, energy, circular economy, food, health and education.
Solutions that can substantially contribute to achieving the SDGs effectively exist today. Nevertheless, they are often not sufficiently deployed on a global scale to have any lasting impact on the achievement of the SDGs.
That is because policy and decision makers are often not aware of the existence of market-ready technological solutions. Even if they are aware of these solutions, they may not fully recognise their potential for the SDGs or even lack the political will to implement them. Policy action is therefore urgently needed to bring these solutions to the market in different regions of the world and have them deployed at scale.
The participants therefore identified urgent actions that the international community, national policy and decision makers, investors, civil society and entrepreneurs should consider in order to deploy market-ready technological solutions on a global scale. They confirmed a concrete engagement towards building Science, Technology & Innovation roadmaps that include market-ready technological solutions for achieving the SDGs.
Chairperson Summary
Reporting on the conference key findings
The Chairperson Summary reports on the key findings for the thematic clusters (water, energy, circular economy, food, geospatial data, health and education), the cross-cutting themes (climate-smart technology, gender mainstreaming, ICT, sustainable technology & development, youth engagement) and the Industry Night themes (CO2 and Bamboo as alternative resources).
Pilot projects
Pilot projects need to be brought to the attention of policy makers and civil society to make the case for their economic and social feasibility and their potential to contribute to achieving the SDGs.
Do-able roadmaps
Do-able technological roadmaps need to be built, looking across sectors and taking a holistic approach to transitions towards more sustainable production and consumption models.
Creating demand
Demand for new products emanating from innovative technological solutions needs to be created, actively contributing to the creation of a circular economy.
New legislation
New legislation and regulation are required to create the enabling environment for innovative technological solutions to be deployed at scale.
De-risking investments
Public money must be used better to de-risk private investments in new technologies and to establish new asset classes.
Guiding change
Governance models must be created to guide social change, human perception and behaviour for technological innovation to go hand in hand with social and economic innovation.