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  On
24 and 25 April 2006 more than 40 scientists from 8 European
countries took part in the Sixth International Conference
on “Current Issues of Sustainable Development” organised
by Prof. Joost Platje and Prof. Janusz Słodczyk at the Faculty
of Economics of Opole University. The conference was organised
in co-operation with the European Association of Environmental
and Resource Economists (Polish Division) and sponsored by
Reference Point and the Watersketch Project.
The secretary of the conference was dr Robert Poskart
  After
the opening by Prof. Janusz Słodczyk and a general
discussion on theoretical issues of sustainable development
Prof. L. Tomiałojć,
(Wrocław University); Prof. L. Preisner,
(AGH Kraków); Prof.
J. Platje,
(Opole University), more specific problems were presented such
as Sustainable Development in Omsk (Prof. Kostarev, Omsk;
Prof. Marquand, Oxford University), German Electricity Policy
(Verena Holzer, Potsdam University) and Capacity Building for
Stakeholder Involvement in Sustainable Development (Prof.
Girdzijauskas, Prof. Ciegis and Dalia Gineitiene, Vilnius
University). Students from the Student Scientific Circle on
Sustainable Development at the Faculty of Economics of Opole
University presented a case study on barriers for increasing
the birth rate in the Opole region based on their own
questionnaire research. Other presentations concerned local
sustainable development issues, unsustainable development,
policy making for sustainable development, sustainable
development of rural areas and business involvement in
sustainable development.
Prof. Joost Platje tried to summarise the conference papers
and the discussions during different panels. Many papers
identified the problem of understanding and defining
sustainable development. Can a definition differ depending on
the level of territorial scale (local, national international,
global) we are talking about? In general, urban and rural
development cannot be analysed independently, without taking
national and internalional processes into consideration. Prof.
Platje argued that everywhere the paradigm of economic growth
seems to appear. Currently the market seems to be most
feasible to create production capacity. However, there are
institutional barriers preventing a more equal distribution of
income and productive resources. Furthermore, it seems that
economic power can defend itself on regional, national and
global markets. A real challenge is the involvement of the
less powerful people and the “unusable” resources (environmental
resources having no direct benefit for human beings) in
processes for achieving sustainable development in order to
reduce the problem of social exclusion and exploitation of the
environment. It can be observed that commodity markets
globalises quickly, while environmental problems do not know
borders. An important challenge in achieving sustainable
development seems to be local organisation within the context
of global forces which cannot be influenced at the local level.
How to create incentives for sustainable activities, to create
growth which is fairly divided between people on this planet (now
and in the future) while not destroying the environment? This
may be a mission impossible when not fundamentally changing
our way of thinking.
A selection of papers will be published in the Journal
Economic and Environmental Studies, which issue is planned for
autumn 2006. For information on conference papers,
presentations and publications you can contact Prof. Joost
Platje (e-mail: jplatje@uni.opole.pl). |
