The UIC Barcelona Office for Cooperation and Sustainable Development held the 12th Cross-disciplinary Workshop on Sustainability as part of the Science Week. The workshop’s activities aimed not only to reflect on what we are doing to care for the planet in the context of the current crisis, but also to find solutions and foster alliances that protect both the natural environment and our health.

Some of our bachelors’ degree students took the lead throughout the week, hosting virtual sessions in which they presented their research projects associated with the workshop's theme: “Caring for the planet amidst a dual climate and health crisis”.

This year, a total of 63 projects were presented to different members of the jury, including 54 scientific posters and 15 practical workshops by bachelor’s and postgraduate degree students from various fields such as architecture, business administration, communication, humanities, early childhood education and primary education. A total of 231 students from UIC Barcelona reflected on what we can do to take care of the planet amidst the current dual climate and health crisis.

Another activity held online as part of the Cross-disciplinary Workshop on Sustainability was the round table “What is my role in the climate and health crisis?”. Experts from different disciplines discussed how the pandemic is currently affecting the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Facilitated by the director of the Office for Cooperation and Sustainable Development, Sílvia Albareda, the speakers reflected on several SDGs, but specifically on Goals 3, 15 and 17: ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (SDG 3), protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forest, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss (SDG 15), and strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development (SDG 17).

Antonio Cerrillo, environmental journalist for the newspaper La Vanguardia and author of the book Emergencia Climática. Escenarios del calentamiento y sus efectos en España, (‘Climate emergency: Global warming scenarios and their consequences in Spain’) opened his presentation by pointing out that “pandemics will emerge more frequently in the future, spread more rapidly, cause more harm to the global economy and affect many more people than COVID-19 has”. This may indeed happen unless “humanity embraces a transformative shift in how we confront infectious diseases and change their relation to nature”, he stressed.

The experts foregrounded that it is possible to “escape the era of pandemics”, but the journalist believes that “a radical change is needed to put the focus on prevention and avoid replying on vaccines”.

In the same vein, the speaker mentioned a report published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), from the UN's panel of experts on biodiversity. According to Cerrillo, the document calls for “a halt to deforestation and trade in wildlife, a halt to invasions of natural enclaves that are hot spots for coronaviruses, and the creation of an intergovernmental partnership on health and trade to reduce zoonotic diseases (animal-to-human diseases) with the participation of the United Nations”.

The second speaker was professional surfer Garazi Sánchez, two-time Spanish champion. In support of the journalist presentation and standpoint, Sánchez explained that her vision and perception of conservation and the state of the oceans changed as a result of a personal experience, specifically an accident that occurred while she was training. She spent a year on dry land to fully recover from her injury. She decided to use this time to co-produce a short documentary called Vergüenza (Shame), in which she explains that, despite spending much of her life at sea, she knew very little about the oceans and their state of deterioration. In fact, and as Garazi Sánchez expressed, the documentary was created to explain “the shame she felt” when she realised how her own actions were contributing to the destruction of the oceans: “my plane journeys around the world, my dozen jerseys, the plastics I saw when I was surfing and didn't pick up...”.

Last but not least, the third speaker was Pastora Martínez. Vice-Rector for Globalisation and Cooperation at the UOC and coordinator of the Inter-University Commission for the implementation of Agenda 2030 in Catalan universities, she talked about how the pandemic is affecting the implementation of SDGs in universities, what can be learned from this tragic situation we are experiencing and how we can help fulfil the SDGs at and as universities.

Martínez stated that “universities play a very important role in shaping society” and that, therefore, “in terms of social transformation, we have to understand our capacity for action and influence on society”. However, “university institutions have been strongly affected by the pandemic. This crisis has affected everyone and all sectors, and the real impact it will have in the future remains unclear”, she explained.

With regard to how Catalan universities can help fulfil the SDGs, she stated that “institutions have been working for a long time on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, approved by the United Nations five years ago, long before COVID-19”. As Pastora Martínez explained, “this document already anticipated the current pandemic. The third goal’s targets encompass infectious diseases, and there were already articles published ten years ago by expert researchers indicating that the loss of biodiversity could lead to the emergence of pandemics and new infectious diseases”. This is why the 2030 Agenda is a vitally important document, “to have a clear idea of the great challenges of today” concluded Martínez.