5º INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON HABITAT AND SUSTAINABILITY

The 5th International Congress on Habitat and Sustainability: Possible Futures Beyond 2030 which will take place from April 9 to 11, 2025 at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, with the collaboration of the International University Network Routes Towards Sustainability and the support of the State Council of Science and Technology of the State of Jalisco – COECYTJAL, aims to evaluate the results of global sustainability agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Agreement to propose plans, projects and initiatives with a vision of possible futures, based on the recognition of achievements globally, local impacts, pending challenges and emerging agendas beyond the 2030 goals. 

Global Context of the Habitat and Sustainability

Since the United Nations Conference in Stockholm in 1972, humanity has become aware of the growing and complex environmental crisis caused by the predominant development model. Despite numerous global efforts related to sustainability, such as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Agenda 21, the United Nations Habitat Conferences on Human Settlements or, more recently, the Paris Agreement in 2015, progress towards achieving sustainable habitat has been limited; not only to urban habitats but also to all environmental and natural systems. National governments have promoted actions linked to reducing impacts and emissions, increasing green areas, promoting less polluting transport systems or infrastructure, and creating an agri-food system or strategies for managing the sea more fairly and sustainably. However, they have not been able to fulfil all the commitments they have made, as the world has changed significantly in this first quarter of the 21st century, in which the globalisation of markets, the growing financialisation of the economy, modes of production and consumption and geopolitical instability have aggravated the climate crisis in urban and natural habitats around the world, with a more significant impact on populations in vulnerable conditions and environments of high inequality.

The vast majority of the international scientific community agrees that the “great acceleration” of human activities since 1950 and the globalisation of markets since 1990 have been determining factors in the climate crisis. In the last three decades, several worrying phenomena have been observed, among which the following stand out:

• Financial speculation covers all areas of life on the planet, especially those related to basic human resources such as water, food, and housing
• There is an increase in energy consumption and an inability to reduce fossil fuel consumption despite the growth in renewable and sustainable energy production.
• The increasing displacement and mobility of the population in the territories due to various causes such as tourism, which has become the first industry in the globalised world and the forced migration of millions of people who have left their place of origin seeking better life opportunities fleeing environments with a high level of social, political and/or climatic risk.
• Daily consumption habits that, instead of heading towards a reasonable and responsible reduction, have been strengthened by the drive of industrial sectors such as high technology, construction, fashion and food production, which produce more and more waste, consume more energy and whose life cycle is increasingly shorter.
• The accelerated urbanisation in the different regions leading to a greater demand for housing, services and transport that cannot be adequately met, also causing the loss of land and biodiversity in urban environments.
• In areas such as construction, fashion, technology and food, the use of high environmental impact materials such as plastic, paper, glass or wood has been promoted without an adequate system for separating waste, selective collection and recycling of reusable raw materials.
• The political, social and financial crises of recent years have prevented continued investment in sustainability projects, favouring economic growth policies at the expense of the environment and reducing opportunities for ecological/economic transition to a more balanced development.

These phenomena reflect the need for policies, projects, and actions that allow for the global reduction of emissions in the atmosphere, the mitigation of impacts, and adaptation and capacity building to reduce risks related to the climate crisis. Likewise, strengthening community participation, institutions, and political structures (from international organisations to national, subnational, and local governments) is required to achieve more efficient and effective sustainable projects.

Since the Paris Conference and the formal adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals with the adhesion of almost all the countries of the United Nations, new instruments have been defined for measurement and action that seek to resolve the implicit contradiction of the concept of sustainable development. Based on these objectives, valuable efforts have been made related to topics such as the ecological transition, the energy transition, circularity to correct the growth trajectories of consumption and the creation of public policies to improve governance conditions at all levels.

There have been achievements in some of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. Still, these are partial results in areas such as gender equality, climate action and affordable and clean energy development. However, in the vast majority of cases, not only have the goals not been achieved, but new and more evident contradictions have emerged, such as the impossibility of reducing inequalities, ending poverty, hunger, and job insecurity or reducing the unsustainable extraction of any natural resource. The clearest case of these goals not being met is related to the objective “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”, since in recent years, there has been an increase in situations of social polarisation, war conflicts and the systematic weakening of institutions with an interest in public affairs from the global to the local level.

As we face increasingly complex challenges, it is essential to adopt a holistic approach, so for this congress, our reflections that could direct our actions are concentrated on four thematic axes: 1) urban resilience, 2) fair and sustainable cities, 3) adaptive and efficient projects and construction, and 4) thriving habitats. Only through global cooperation and a genuine commitment to ecological conversion we will be able to ensure a sustainable future for all generations to come.

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