Former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, winner of the 2014 Tang Prize in sustainable development, is next month to give two talks in Taiwan on sustainable development, public health and the environment.
Brundtland, who has been called the “godmother of sustainable development,” is to attend a forum titled “Public Health and the Environment in a Sustainable Society” at the Academia Sinica on April 2, the Tang Prize Foundation said.
The following day, she is to give a speech titled “Sustainable Development Goals, a Thirty-Year Story of International Collaboration” at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan.
Brundtland is to visit Taiwan to attend NCKU’s Gro Brundtland Week of Women in Sustainable Development, which honors female researchers from Taiwan and developing nations.
Five female researchers from South Africa, Kenya, India, the Philippines and Malaysia are to receive this year’s Gro Brundtland Award at a ceremony on April 3.
They are to present their work and give a series of talks around the country between Wednesday and April 3, addressing issues such as women and children’s health, disease and environmental sustainability, the foundation said.
Brundtland is a former chairperson of the World Commission on Environment and Development, which coined the term “sustainable development” in a 1987 landmark report titled Our Common Future.
The 1987 Brundtland Report by the commission laid the groundwork for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which produced a global action plan for sustainable development known as Agenda 21 and initiated the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the lead-up to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
She has also served as Norway’s minister of climate and environment, director-general of the WHO and a UN special envoy on climate change.
She is currently deputy chairperson of The Elders, a group of world leaders brought together in 2007 by late South African president Nelson Mandela to work for peace and human rights.
Brundtland in 2014 received a cash prize of NT$40 million (US$1.37 million) and a research grant of NT$10 million for winning the Tang Prize.
She donated half the research grant to Milgis Trust, a Kenyan non-profit that protects wildlife and natural resources, and the other half to NCKU to train female scientists and researchers from Taiwan and developing countries.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS