Energy and development: the role of academia in education, research, and technological cooperation for sustainability

Abstract

Over the last decades, the interest of the international community for the multiple interconnections among energy, environment, and society has widely increased. Today, the close link between energy and development is officially recognized. The 2030 development agenda identifies energy access as a necessary precondition for human and social promotion, as well as an instrumental right to fight poverty. Nevertheless access to sufficient, affordable, efficient, reliable, safe and clean energy is not yet an opportunity for all. In developing countries, the problem is critical, but evidence has also risen in emerging countries and, more recently, even in developed countries. A new culture of energy is needed at global level. Innovative solutions and strategies to match the economic growth with the multidimensional targets of sustainability, including environmental preservation and social inclusion, need to be developed. In this scenario, the academia and the scientific community may play a key role by reshaping and updating their traditional mission, based on education, research, and community outreach, with a vision of the society where the human being is settled back at the center of the stage.

The Importance of Higher Education in the EU Countries in Achieving the Objectives of the Circular Economy in the Energy Sector

“…Higher education institutions are strategic actors supporting sustainable development through teaching, research, and social activities [57][58][59]. Education in universities focused on the CE assumptions allows for the introduction of social and economic changes at the macro and administrative level, supporting enterprises in the implementation of closed-loop processes at the micro level by providing educated employees, implementing experience and innovative projects [46,[60][61][62][63][64]. Students are treated as future employees.…”

Mining and metallurgical wastes: a review of recycling and re-use practices

“…(1) Incorporating environmental aspects in the design tasks of the various courses covering the unit processes producing the waste materials (Vanderburg, 1999;Boks and Diehl, 2006;Zimmerman and Anastas, 2009;Zoller, 2013) (2) Research-based teaching in order to develop cognitive enquiry skills through experiential learning (Kolb, 1984;Grimson, 2002;Healy, 2005;Zoller, 2013;Hedden et al, 2017) (3) Alignment of individual academics' agency into the teaching and learning of sustainability principles (Cebrián and Junyent, 2015;Colombo and Mattarolo, 2017;Hedden et al, 2017).…”

Realization of PPP projects in the sector of energetics as a condition of a sustainable development of macroregions

“…Over the past decades of multiple discussions about a connection between energetics, environment and society, international community has officially recognized a deep interconnection between energetics and the sustainable development (Colombo E., Mattarolo L. 2017;Tvaronavičienė, M., Nesterova, K., Kováčik, V. 2017;Smaliukienė, R. Monni, S. 2019;Masood, O., Tvaronavičienė, M., Javaria, K. 2019;Sarma, U., Karnitis, G., Zuters, J., Karnitis, E. 2019).…”

“…The directions of development of the world economy until 2030 define access to electricity as a necessary condition for the fight against poverty, since the provision of affordable, efficient, stable, safe and clean energy in sufficient quantities is not yet available to all (Colombo E., Mattarolo L. 2017).…”