Tag: un sdg

How To Guarantee Arctic Environmental Well-Being?

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

Arctic (20)

With so much dangerous toxins, greenhouse gases, and pollution from e.g. industrial waste and the inefficient burning of black coal in Earth´s atmosphere, how can we ensure that these toxins and pollutants do not end up anywhere in our environment, especially in the Arctic region which warms at least twice as fast as the rest of our planet?

There is no other way of preventing harmful pollutants of destroying our environment, including ourselves, than removing them completely from our way of living. Yet, with the technologies and methods of production we use today, this prevention seems impossible. How long will it take until we destroy ourselves and our home planet? According to the most optimistic prognoses, we have this century left. Others say, only a few decades. Others say, only a few years or at the maximum, a decade. Are we headed towards a climate catastrophe? Let us hope that we do not, and that we still have time to take action.

This is one of the main messages of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG´s) that are a continuum to the Millennium Development Goals – UN SDG Goal Number 13: Take URGENT action to combat climate change and its impacts.

This is no joke, really. These goals were all set for an extremely important reason. In fact, all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are in one way or the other interlinked to climate action and climate change. Learn more about UN´s Sustainable Development Goals here.

We have NO time to wast. We must all take action now, both on individual, business, organizational, and governmental levels. Especially much responsibility must be taken by the largest emitters on this planet: China, The U.S.A. and the European Union. Those who destroy and pollute the most must act NOW and transform their economies into increasingly much sustainable places of living. This is not something concerning only the Arctic region, although this is where the warming of the planet is faster than elsewhere. Right now, in the COP23 Climate Summit in Bonn, hosted by Fiji, sea level rise and its threat to millions and millions of people worldwide is being discussed very seriously. If we cannot prevent sea levels from rising, swallowing up whole islands and coastal cities around the world, what will the future look like for these people? Where will they live? What will they eat? How will they produce food in environments and climates that change so rapidly that our current ways of producing food are unsustainable? If you have answers, please let me know, or at least take action upon them. For example in Finland completely new ways of food production are already being implemented by experimental and progressive businesses that have foreseen what we have ahead of us.

Learn more about the melting Arctic by watching European Environment Agency´s video “Melting Arctic: Environmental Atlas of Europe – Greenland”:

 

Connect with me on Twitter @annemariayritys. For climate/environment-related posts only @GCCThinkActTank. Subscribe to Leading With Passion to receive my latest posts.

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UN: Take Urgent Action To Combat Climate Change

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

Global Climate Change (91).jpg

“UN Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”

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In 2015 the UN launched its Sustainable Development Goals with a target of reaching these by 2030. When looking at these Sustainable Development Goals and analyzing them, you will soon realize what they all have in common: climate change and climate action. Putting these goals together as pieces of a puzzle one realizes that climate change (and, especially anthropogenic climate change) is a common denominator, having a significant impact upon our ability to solve all other major local/global problems, such as hunger and malnutrition, poverty, HIV/malaria and other major infectious diseases, child/maternal mortality rates and so on. Climate change, in fact, makes everything even worse than it already is, and the effects of climate change throughout the world are jeopardizing all the good work and all the achievements that have already been made in the past decades to achieve zero hunger around the world and so on. In addition, completely new problems, such as overweight and obesity, have risen throughout our world in the past decades.

The UN is often being criticized for inefficiency in tackling global problems, and reaching the goals that have been set. Much is being discussed about the UN as an organization needing a face-lift, or at least renewing the organization in some ways. Of course, all businesses and organizations, in addition to individuals, are in need of constant improvement and change, because change is the only constant in this world, and the most dangerous thing for anyone to say is that things have always been this way, or we have always done things this way. Any individual or organization making these kinds of statements is wrong, and swimming in very deep waters. Never ever take things for granted or expect them to remain similar for a very long time.

As an intergovernmental organization, UN member states have signed up to provide the organization with 0,7% of its national budget each year. Most of the member countries never deliver even half of this, while some countries pay more than 0,7% of the national budget as a support for the work provided by the UN. The reasons for this may differ from country to country, but it is a fact that the lower the budget, the more tight it becomes for the UN to reach its goals. And, with constant opposition around the world, with e.g. high levels of corruption, any (charitable) organization will face difficulties. Instead, try to focus upon the achievements of the UN, its positive influence in the world, all the data, research and statistics provided by the UN and its organizations. Without these, our world could look darker than it is today, along with the fact that the UN has, through its work, inspired new NGO´s and startups.

Connect with me on Twitter @annemariayritys. For climate/environment-related posts only @GCCThinkActTank. Subscribe to Leading With Passion to receive my latest posts.

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