MSc students gain insight at the UNIDO-SID Workshop on Environmental Policy

Sixteen Master of Science students from MU’s class of “Environmental Management and Sustainability”, led by Prof. Sabine Sedlacek, recently attended “Environmental Policy – An endeavor critical for achieving sustainable development,” at the Vienna International Center.

It was hosted by the Society of International Development (SID) and UNIDO to facilitate conversations regarding the role of environmental policy in various international initiatives, led largely by experts from the fields of sustainable development, ecological protection, environmental governance, private sector innovation, and education. The key speakers came from the Austrian Development Agency, the Society of International Development, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and the United Nations Environment Program.

Along with MU, four Vienna-based universities were also in attendance: the University of Vienna, the Technical University, the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, representing classic inter-university collaborations. This initiative was the culmination of significant effort on the part of Sabine Sedlacek, and was intended to enrich the course’s common knowledge bank on the various governance perspectives and approaches necessary to facilitate a sustainable, long-term project in environmental conservation and socioeconomic development.

There were two speakers with the greatest impact: Elisabeth Soetz from the Austrian Development Cooperation and Smeeta Fokeer from the Research and Industrial Policy Advice Unit of UNIDO. Soetz clarified the important role private sector financial institutions can have on facilitating pro-environmental projects, speaking on accountability markers and safeguards to ensure that the return on investment is not simply financial, but as representative of the three dimensions of sustainable development.

Fokeer represented a comparatively different perspective, one from the public, international sector. UNIDO is critical in creating an industrial policy framework which encourages sustainable development initiatives emphasizing conserving natural resources, and low-carbon green production/consumption pattern.

It was especially helpful to the class to have both of these perspectives, especially given the mixed educational backgrounds of its students so to create a baseline of knowledge to mobilize for the final projects. The final projects is to analyze and present a strong case of environmental management in a developing country, in the form of a paper, and poster presentation on December 17-18 at the Austrian Development Bank. 

- Nina Schneider, Student in the MSc in Sustainable Management, Development, and Policy

Photo: L-R, MSc students Veronika Fehéregyházy and Nina Schneider