10:30 AM – 8:00 PM
Strategies for the Sustainable Transition - Challenges, Opportunities, and Expertise
Since 2014, the TU Berlin has been developing four postgraduate (MBL & MBA) courses on the EUREF Campus, Berlin, the last joining in 2017 and known in parallel as the “Energy Masters”. They each focus on different aspects of the current issues surrounding energy sustainability, including energy law and management, housing and urban development, as well as mobility.
Promote dialogue on climate change challenges
The desire to open a dialogue among the different stakeholders prompted the organization of the Energy Masters’ Conference. The goal of the conference is to outline, at the German and European levels, the trends of the transition toward sustainable infrastructures (Energy, Mobility, Buildings, and Urban Structures), focusing on the keywords of challenges, opportunities, and expertise.
It is well known how, in the past decades, we have witnessed a rising concern on climate change, triggering great attention, also within industry circles, concerning the goal of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. However, the shift toward more sustainable energy sources and their use has faced and is now, more than ever, facing several challenges. According to many observers, the pace of the shift is too slow; technological achievements are not supported by new policy; the transition toward sustainability, not surprisingly, triggers social enthusiasm, but also resistance, or denial; the mismatch between existing expertise and the job market is becoming evident, and it can further slow-down any innovative action.
Generate skills and competences for sustainable development
As TU Berlin Energy Masters programs, we aim to promote a discussion around the transition in the energy sectors, according to the different industries (energy, building and spatial development, mobility), tackling the issues of skills, expertise, and the current transition.
The sessions of the conference will focus on three core topics. Trends and challenges in transitioning toward sustainability on an EU level, but with a global perspective will be defined, focusing on the expected trends over the next two decades. To tackle these challenges and further develop the trends, a deeper understanding of the latest international experiences in designing innovative and experimental strategies and projects of the sustainable transition processes is needed and will be discussed. Of further importance will be which skills and competencies are needed to implement the mentioned strategies.
After having defined the trend and challenges, and discussed the skills and competencies required, the focus will shift to the consequences of government objectives and decisions for the industries and people engaged in the transition. It will outline how new generations of young experts are best trained.
All these new challenges and tasks are having massive consequences on the way and orientation in which universities educate their students. That’s why we aim to position the Master’s programs in the current debate on sustainability and energy, targeting stakeholders, policymakers, think tank, industry managers, MBA students, and alumni.
The speakers at the conference are German and European leading figures in the field of sustainability. We aim to use the conference not only to open a discussion among stakeholders but also to prompt an active role by the audience.