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Aim/Purpose: A proposal for a pedagogical model that integrates digital technologies in teaching Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in K-12 Education. Background: The research is developed within project InTecEdu (Integration of Technology in Education), developed by the research group since 2008, and focusing on social inclusion for highly socially vulnerable K-12 students. Methodology: The research was exploratory and qualitative; data was collected through a questionnaire and participant observation, with 253 students and 9 teachers from 5 Brazilian public schools. Contribution: The research contributes by bringing a pedagogical model for integrating SDGs and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in K-12 education. Findings: All analyzed aspects received a high level of approval, although some opportunities for improvement were identified, such as the duration and frequency of the session. Recommendation for Researchers: We recommend the reuse of the pedagogical model, since our intention is for it to be open-source, and free to use. Impact on Society: The paper is aligned with the fourth SDG: Quality Education. It directly contributes with the education of 253 socially vulnerable students from a south American public school, and indirectly contributes with improvement of education. Future Research: To improve the pedagogical model based on the feedback from the questionnaires and apply it with a more extensive scenario.

Free and compulsory primary education remains a priority area in the international policy perspective, starting from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 to the formulation of Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Under the impact of globalization, an impressive expansion in the access to primary education has been observed in recent decades and the global trends in enrolment rates across the developing world have attested this fact. However, many developing countries, such as India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), are still struggling with the goal of quality primary education for all. The IBSA countries are emerging economies and very proactive in addressing past inequalities prevalent in their countries. With the cooperation of international organizations, national policy planning and other initiatives, these countries have performed quite well in the educational attainment. But even today, these countries have not achieved the goal of quality primary education for all. This paper reviews the attainment of free and compulsory primary education in these countries, along with the challenges faced in the achievement of universal primary education. These challenges may hinder the progress of these countries towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal.

This article maps the scientific production and the contents associated with the sustainable development goals and their integration with universities during the past 21 years. Although many of the topics related to sustainable development goals (SDGs) have been addressed in different studies for decades, it is since 2015 onwards that they gained greater prominence due to the inclusion of higher education as an important actor in the fulfillment of the 2030 agenda and the United Nations SDGs. For the purpose of this paper, a bibliometric analysis of 871 papers, 535 documents in Scopus, and 336 in Web of Science (WoS) from 1998 to 2019 was performed, and the Bibliometrix analysis tool was used. The objective of this mapping is to answer the following research question: Is the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals and Universities a field of study? An analysis of the network of collaborators and trend topics in Scopus and WoS allows us to identify the concurrence and relationships of some keywords, such as sustainable development, sustainability and planning, and some background words, such as humans and global health. In another analysis, the word "higher education" is related to change. This article suggests that the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals in Universities is becoming a field of study under exploration, with a peak of production in 2016 and that has remained stable in the last three years, but thanks to the leading role assigned to Universities, intellectual production should increase in the following years.

The gaps observed in entities' traditional reports and accounts led to the emergence of the integrated report (IR), which includes several content elements, namely the component relating to risks and opportunities. Within this scope, the specific risks that may affect an organization's capacity to create value are disclosed, among others, which is information of interest to the different stakeholders. This paper aims to identify the explanatory factors that influence the disclosure of risks in IRs. For this purpose, the IRs of entities listed on the Brazilian stock exchange for the year 2020 were assessed. The study was based on the explanatory theories of risk disclosure usually found in the literature, namely, the legitimacy, the agency, the signaling, and the upper echelon theories. Linear regression models were used with the disclosure rates of different types of risk as dependent variables. The size, profitability, indebtedness, independence, and gender diversity in the board of directors (BD), audit, and activity sector comprised the selected explanatory factors. Associations were found between some of the types of risks disclosed and the size of the entity, the existence of an audit, the independence of the BD, and the activity sector. The paper contributes to the literature about the explanatory factors of risk disclosure by exploring its analysis with different typologies and attributes, having the IR as a source of information, which is still little explored. The scientific contribution encompasses proposing a new risk analysis model in the IR. The innovative elements also comprise the classification of risks related to sustainable development (SD), including environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising temperatures and sea levels, as well as the depletion of natural resource stocks, places green growth more than ever at the center of our political and economic agendas. But how can a country or region exactly "go green"? Transforming current economic structures into a green economy is a complex process. The structure of an economy is determined by the type of jobs that are present in an economy. Therefore, the creation of green jobs is one of the components of the "going green" process. Using occupational data for 27 Brazilian states between 2003 and 2013, this paper examines whether the level of economic complexity of a state explains why one state has a greener occupation space than another. First, we construct a "green jobs index" which quantitatively measures the greenness of the occupation space of a state. We then empirically show that economic complexity has a positive explanatory power when it comes to differences in this green jobs index. We also show that transitioning through this occupational space is a slow and difficult process. Nonetheless, we find evidence of declining regional differences in greenness. Initially, states which had a low green jobs index became relatively greener than states that had initially a high green jobs index. This indicates convergence across states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental differences between the dimensions of sustainable development have been identified by researchers and many assessment tools have been developed in several countries. This paper introduces the development of a methodology for determining the weight of each dimension employed in sustainable construction assessment through the use of assessment tools that use the Brazilian indicators of sustainable development in accordance with the Commission on Sustainable Development, and also through the utilization of a database provided by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE). Firstly, the Sustainability Panel tool was employed to reveal separately the status of dimensions in sustainable development (environmental, social and economic) and then it was made a statistical analysis of the results for each region in Brazil (north, northeast, midwest, southeast and south). The solution presented in this paper aims to reduce the inconsistencies found in the adjustments of the assessment tools considering regional differences based on political actions included in governmental agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed, for the Brazilian case, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The concept of negative externality and market failure was used to understand the need for environmental policies capable of favoring the sustainable development of countries. The results show the importance of scale for the registration of projects. The energy sector, for example, has more small-scale projects that were created to simplify procedures and lower costs. It was concluded, in general, that the CDM has become an international historical landmark, as it is an innovative tool in contributing to the mitigation of climate change. However, despite its importance being recognized globally, it was observed that the mechanism has weakened over time and there are uncertainties regarding the validity of the Kyoto Protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Very few transdisciplinary approaches are found in nexus research in the Brazilian context. • Quantitative methods are predominantly used over qualitative and hybrid methods. • Natural scientific, engineering and economic fields prevail in Brazilian research on the nexus. • The technocratic water-energy nexus in the hydropower and biofuels sectors is dominant. • The Brazilian research agenda overlooks the effect of rapid urbanization and poverty on the nexus. The water-energy-food nexus has gained particular momentum in the fields of sustainable development and resource security in the last years. However, some scholars critically question the nexus by arguing that research is strongly shaped by western knowledge with a bias towards natural scientific, engineering and economic perspectives; whereas there is a lack of attention on local socio-political aspects and little contribution from social sciences. This paper provides a critical analysis of studies focused on the nexus in the Brazilian context or by Brazilian institutions. The main objectives are to assess whether research on the nexus in the Brazilian context shares common features with the international research; to identify the main nexus topics in this geographic context; and to examine if socio-economic challenges are considered, specifically regarding urbanization and poverty. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, the results show that Brazilian institutions lead research on the nexus in the Brazilian context, however the contribution from the social sciences remains marginal. Furthermore, quantitative methods are predominantly used over qualitative and hybrid methods. The research largely focuses on connections between water and energy in the hydropower and biofuels sectors, and it is based on discourses of efficiency, optimization, modelling and technological innovation. In addition, scholars have so far failed to address other important issues for sustainable development in Brazil and the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyze a tiering scoping approach developed to identify critical multidimensional sustainability issues and impacts of a large infrastructure project: the land transport project linking northern Brazil with a new port on Guyana's coast. The Inter-American Development Bank awarded a technical assignment to develop the terms of reference of a country environmental assessment, a strategic environmental and social assessment and an environmental and social impact assessment of the project(s). The complexity of the issues at stake lead to the design of a tiered assessment process supported by wide-ranging participative sessions involving 170 individuals from Guyana and Brazil and from diverse sectors. The process identified ex ante conditionalities, critical factors for decision-making and valued socioenvironmental and governance components. Such complex and determinant planning initiatives for the future of a country need to be supported by comprehensive, well-sequenced scoping processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consolidation of the biorefinery concept has the potential to contribute to the sustainable development of agro-industrial regions, particularly in developing countries. The industrial symbiosis (IS) approach can leverage this potential through industrial cooperation, fostering new businesses, innovation and job creation coupled with reduced environmental impacts. We argue that coupling the biorefinery concept and the IS approach would invigorate traditionally agricultural regions, relying on endogenous vocation to promote sustainability. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential for development of an agro-industrial symbiosis network (ISN) from the construction of a biorefinery in the Norte Fluminense region (Brazil) – a region that has become highly dependent on oil & gas revenues but still has a tradition in agriculture and agro-industry. In this paper, we present the scenario analysis performed to design the agro ISN and an initial quantification of potential benefits. Four scenarios were developed (reference, short, mid and long terms) with the support of a synergy matrix and material flow analysis. Eighteen waste streams were identified and sixteen were addressed through the scenarios. In the long-term scenario, 14 productive activities could compose the agro-industrial symbiosis network, 8 of them as newcomers. “Quick-wins” were identified as residues in the reference scenario (CO 2 , fusel oil and used yeast) that could be absorbed by industries currently operating in the region. The emission of respectively 350 thousand and 55 thousand tonnes per year of solid waste and CO 2 would be avoided in the long term. Also, the production of succinic acid would provide additional revenue of at least US$19 per tonne of bagasse, adding higher value to the feedstock in comparison to electricity production. This study can prompt current recycling regulation towards multi-sectorial arrangements, which can better contribute to regional resilience than the single-sector reverse logistics’ arrangements that became recently mandatory with the National Policy on Solid Waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of this article is to analyze the challenges to, and opportunities for, increasing sustainable development (SD) co-benefits delivered by clean development mechanism (CDM) wind power projects in northeastern Brazil and the resulting implications for climate and energy policies. Five methodological phases were met: First, a documentary research was conducted in the main CDM database; second was a literature review, creating the analytical framework and a survey questionnaire needed to assess the SD co-benefits from the projects; third, documentary research was used to enable ex-ante analysis of the SD co-benefits proposed in the CDM Project Design Documents (PDDs); fourth, survey allowed for the analysis of SD co-benefits perceived by project entrepreneurs (ex-post analysis); and finally, a comparison between the ex-ante and ex-post analyses was completed. The results show the importance of carrying out SD co-benefit studies after the implementation of CDM projects in order to learn lessons for new mechanisms of climate governance. The lowest SD co-benefits were water management improvement in the project influence area, soil pollution prevention, health and safety improvements and technology transfer. The greatest opportunities for increasing SD co-benefits come from the environmental licensing process and the strengthening of Corporate Social Responsibility. The greatest challenges are new technology development, stakeholders' engagement and SD co-benefit audits. We conclude that the improvement of multi-level climate and energy governance plays a key role in increasing SD co-benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Universal health coverage (UHC) can play an important role in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10, which addresses reducing inequalities, but little supporting evidence is available from low- and middle-income countries. Brazil's Estratégia de Saúde da Família (ESF) (family health strategy) is a community-based primary healthcare (PHC) programme that has been expanding since the 1990s and is the main platform for delivering UHC in the country. We evaluated whether expansion of the ESF was associated with differential reductions in mortality amenable to PHC between racial groups.Methods and Findings: Municipality-level longitudinal fixed-effects panel regressions were used to examine associations between ESF coverage and mortality from ambulatory-care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) in black/pardo (mixed race) and white individuals over the period 2000-2013. Models were adjusted for socio-economic development and wider health system variables. Over the period 2000-2013, there were 281,877 and 318,030 ACSC deaths (after age standardisation) in the black/pardo and white groups, respectively, in the 1,622 municipalities studied. Age-standardised ACSC mortality fell from 93.3 to 57.9 per 100,000 population in the black/pardo group and from 75.7 to 49.2 per 100,000 population in the white group. ESF expansion (from 0% to 100%) was associated with a 15.4% (rate ratio [RR]: 0.846; 95% CI: 0.796-0.899) reduction in ACSC mortality in the black/pardo group compared with a 6.8% (RR: 0.932; 95% CI: 0.892-0.974) reduction in the white group (coefficients significantly different, p = 0.012). These differential benefits were driven by greater reductions in mortality from infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies and anaemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in the black/pardo group. Although the analysis is ecological, sensitivity analyses suggest that over 30% of black/pardo deaths would have to be incorrectly coded for the results to be invalid. This study is limited by the use of municipal-aggregate data, which precludes individual-level inference. Omitted variable bias, where factors associated with ESF expansion are also associated with changes in mortality rates, may have influenced our findings, although sensitivity analyses show the robustness of the findings to pre-ESF trends and the inclusion of other municipal-level factors that could be associated with coverage.Conclusions: PHC expansion is associated with reductions in racial group inequalities in mortality in Brazil. These findings highlight the importance of investment in PHC to achieve the SDGs aimed at improving health and reducing inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]