Expert stories: be inspired by their insights on how to achieve the SDGs

Marjolein Vanoppen

Marjolein Vanoppen

Chair industrial and circular water technology @ Ghent University

OceansWater

How desalination can help address the freshwater challenge

May 17, 2021

Fresh water is scarce. Seawater desalination is expected to play a vital role in limiting the gap between water demand and supply. Sixteen thousand desalination plants are currently estimated to be active, producing 95 billion litres of water per day for human use.

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Dietrich Van der Weken

Dietrich Van der Weken

General Manager @ G-STIC

Circular EconomyOceans

Realising long-term solutions for marine plastics pollution

April 19, 2021

If no action is taken to break current trends, oceans will have more plastic than fish by 2050. The European Commission’s recently announced Circular Economy Action Plan defines plastics as a focus sector where the potential for circularity is high.

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Gro Harlem Brundtland

Gro Harlem Brundtland

Vice Chairman @ United Nations Foundation

ClimateFood

Building climate-positive and resilient global food systems

March 22, 2021

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, about two billion people experience moderate to severe food insecurity. This trend will likely be exacerbated by the growing impacts of climate change. So the global food systems need to be transformed.

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Luna Janssen

Luna Janssen

PhD Researcher @ University of Antwerp

EducationICT

How COVID-19 exposed challenges for technology in education

February 22, 2021

Nearly 1,6 billion students in 194 countries were impacted by school closures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. While this triggered large-scale efforts to use digital technology, it also exposed the big challenge of bridging the digital divide in education.

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Dietrich Van der Weken

Dietrich Van der Weken

General Manager @ G-STIC

Space

SDG entrepreneurship fuelled by Copernicus Earth Observation

January 18, 2021

Copernicus Earth Observation data can help manage the Earth’s finite resources. One prototype developed during the 2019 G-STIC Copernicus hackathon addressed the challenge of monitoring Acid Mine Drainage to remedy adverse environmental impacts.

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Hindou Ibrahim

Hindou Ibrahim

President @ AFPAT

Climate

Advocating indigenous peoples’ knowledge in fighting climate change

December 21, 2020

For the pastoralist Mbororo people to which Hindou Ibrahim belongs, climate change is not just a series of warnings in a report. Her message is a simple one: we must re-build our relationship with nature and do this in partnership with indigenous peoples.

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