Sixteen game-changing initiatives from around the world were announced today as winners of a prestigious United Nations climate change award.

Winning activities include a seriously cool smartphone that puts social values first and an initiative that is enabling 40 Latin American cities to take concrete climate action.

Others include a women-led initiative in Benin that uses solar energy to empower women farmers and an internal carbon fee that holds the business units of one of the world’s most famous software and ICT companies financially responsible for reducing their carbon emissions.

The Momentum for Change initiative is spearheaded by the UN Climate Change secretariat to shine a light on some of the most innovative, scalable and replicable examples of what people are doing to address climate change. Today’s announcement is part of wider efforts to mobilize action and ambition as national governments work toward adopting a new universal climate agreement in Paris.

[video:https://vimeo.com/78705262]

“With less than 35 days to go until the climate change conference in Paris, the Momentum for Change Lighthouse Activities are further compelling proof that climate action is building worldwide and in countries, communities, companies and cities everywhere,”UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said. “By showcasing these remarkable solutions and the people behind them we can strengthen efforts toward that new agreement, accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon, highly resilient development path and mark a turning point in the sustainable management of planet Earth for the seven billion alive today and the ten billion by 2050.”

Each of the 16 winning activities touches on one of Momentum for Change’s four focus areas: Urban Poor, Women for Results, Financing for Climate Friendly Investment and ICT Solutions. All 16 will be showcased at a series of special events during the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, France (30 November to 11 December).

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development released the zero draft document that will form the basis of negotiations for Rio+20 negotiations starting this June in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. The document serves as an initial outline for the discussions at the 20th anniversary of the first Rio Convention held in 1992. Overall, this zero draft both acknowledges a lot has happened in the last 20 years in globle and environmental development and that there's still a lot to be done. 

The document, though in it's skeletal draft form, has been met with optimism, and perhaps rightly so. The zero draft is quite comprensive in it's approach to development. A few things we noticed in the document give promise that the negotiations will be forward thinking. In particular, the zero draft acknowledges the rise of technology that will help service develivery and contribute to poverty eradication programs.

Additionally there is a lot said about "green" as the basis of "sustainable development." This is quite significant becasue it points to a shift in perspective. This year's zero draft document embraces integrated means of solving the world's poverty problem from an inclusive perspective. Of particular interest to us is the paragraph that emphasizes the fact the everyone has a role to play in sustainable development.

During our campaign run towards Durban last year, we explored the need for a change in behaviour as being critical to tackling climate change. Here, the zero draft document goes further by calling on everyone, from indigenous people to civil society organizations and local authorities "to play a meaningful role at all levels." The document states that this is made much easier due to improved access to information. By calling on improvements in the rights of people to access information, the zero draft is attempting to legimize the role of ICT in sustainable development. ICTs in this case, serving as the conduit for sustainable development communications.

From our perspective, climate change communication and participation is most certainly made easier when technology is employed. We'll certainly be using a lot more digital and social media tools to continue looking at the critical climate change components within the draft document. Rio is just around the corner and there's going to be a lot to discuss. This time, the convention isn't simply focused on climate change, rather, climate change is part of a larger push for sustainable, green, inclusive, development from a global perspective.