On 1 May, student teams from the five participating institutions in the “Universities for SDG13'' competition submitted their final projects that will be part of the international award finale. This competition is a collaboration between the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Siemens Gamesa, a global leader on renewable energy, to promote university talent in the fight against climate change (SDG 13) while enhancing the relevant role of innovation for quality education (SDG 4).

For this first edition, five institutions selected from SDSN’s network participated in the competition: the Institute for SDGs of Tsinghua University (host institution of SDSN China Hub), the University of Pretoria in South Africa (host of SDSN South Africa), the University of Göttingen in Germany, the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Arizona State University in the United States of America.

A total of 15 teams were shortlisted, three per university. The students presented solutions which focused on SDG13 (Climate Action) themes including issues such as the use of biofuels, sustainable land use, sustainable wind turbine, generating sustainable energy through solar, wind and hydro power, public policy recommendations for wind powered energy, community participation in climate change, carbon sequestration and forest management, and carbon trading.

The selected teams will proceed to the next round of the competition on the global level.

Read more about the project details and timelines on the SDSN website.