Knowledge Centres

NOVA Green Lab

For the United Nations (UN), only through the development and implementation of standards, policies and institutions will it be possible to find better solutions to protect the environment and human rights and to more effectively achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of Agenda 2030.

NOVA Green Lab is the laboratory that responds to the need to find skills and knowledge in the areas of environmental and urban management, a subject that is directly or indirectly linked to all the objectives of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and whose awareness of the importance of good management of environmental and urban measures is increasingly essential.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, since environmental and urbanistic measures, as well as their respective legislation, are intrinsically linked to concepts and practices that not only involve the legal sciences, but also others such as the environment, geography, architecture, urbanism or information management, the research of NOVA Law Green Lab focuses especially on the phenomena that occur in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, without forgetting more macro realities such as the European area and the rest of the international community.

Coordination

Francisco Pereira Coutinho

Vera Eiró

Tiago de Melo Cartaxo

Mission

In 1950, 30% of the world’s population lived in cities. In 2018, the figures were 55%. The projection of the UN and the UN-Habitat programme for 2050 is that 68% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. In this sense, sustainable development depends on good management of urban growth and integrated policies between urban and rural areas, always respecting social and ecological resilience. The NOVA Law Green Lab believes that urban growth and that of other territories is directly connected to the three essential pillars of sustainable growth – economic, social and environmental – as well as to the constant concern for intergenerational solidarity and the rights of future generations. Urban management can therefore contribute to maximizing the benefits of urbanization and minimizing environmental degradation, as well as promote the resilience of territories and the communities that inhabit them.

To meet the growing need for research, information and knowledge production in the areas of intersection between the environment and urbanism, NOVA Law Green Lab promotes research and disseminates its results through publications and events, so that the academic community, civil society, individuals and public administrations have access to more information for the formulation of actions and policies in these areas.

Activities of NOVA Law Green Lab

Bibliographic survey on subjects related to environmental and urban risks, with special focus on the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, without exclusion of other wider realities of the European area or the rest of the international community;
Developing training courses and research work on environmental and urban issues and their implications for the implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development;
Preparation of scientific papers for national and/or international publication on environmental and urban issues, giving priority to publication in online and open access formats;
Conducting conferences on current and relevant issues in the areas of the environment and urbanism;
Regular publication of books in digital format (online), with articles developed through scientific research;
Participation in conferences on environmental and urban planning law;
Sharing of scientific production with the academic community, public bodies and entities, as well as with organized civil society;
Holding monthly meetings to discuss and monitor the development of the Lab’s work.n

greenlab@novalaw.unl.pt