About: The promotion of sustainable lifestyles ought to be seen from the perspective of consumption and production systems and life-cycle approaches that include resource extraction, manufacturing and processing, use by consumers, and disposal. Mainstream frameworks on sustainable consumption and production, including SDG 12, fail to capture downstream segments of resource consumption and production systems especially when it comes to lifestyle choices. This Policy Brief uses a composite index and indices on consumption developed by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in India, to assess the state of lifestyles and consumption in G20 countries and the European Union (EU); these consumption sectors include food, transport, and residential and waste management. The G20 can play a crucial role in promoting norms on sustainable lifestyles as well as informing actions by the use of evidence and exchange of good practices. This Policy Brief recommends the establishment of a ‘lifestyles for environment metrics’ initiative, and for the G20 to launch a global partnership for sustainable lifestyles. Read more>>>
About: Pandemics and wars, both constants of historical evolution, have taught us that we must take care of ourselves; that we must value peace and science; that we must constantly seek solutions for solace and harmony. However, it is now, in the 21st century, when the values of knowledge have reached impressive levels, when technology has improved every field of activity, when our medical systems are extremely advanced, and when wars are carried out cybernetically, causing virtual victims, that we have seen not only the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing roughly 6.5 million deaths, but also the outbreak of a conventional war in Ukraine, where tanks, machine guns and soldiers are causing real casualties. How could this have happened? And, more importantly, what can we learn from it? The two volumes published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization under the title “The Post-Pandemic World between War and Peace” constitute a testimony of how the written and spoken word – our instrument of choice – has helped us fashion a form of intellectual solidarity in spite of imposed isolation, aiding us in overcoming the threat of disease and the fear of death, in leading us to imagine a better and more equitable world of the future. Read more>>>
