ACE Fellows from New York City joined Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) staff at United Nations headquarters this week for the High-level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and the historic signing of the Paris Climate Agreement. Fellows played a vital role in interviewing celebrities like Forest Whitaker, and notable attendees like the United Nations President of the General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft.

ACE partnered with Connect4Climate for this week’s events, a global partnership program of the World Bank aiming to communicate about climate change to the most diverse audiences possible through innovative means. ACE worked with Max Thabiso Edkins, Climate Change Expert at Connect4Climate, World Bank, to position Fellows in the United Nations Digital Media Zone as key youth reporters. Fellows live-tweeted, captured photo and video, co-ran a selfie station, and blogged about the events taking place on Thursday and Friday.

Most notably, ACE Fellow, Victoria Barrett, addressed the attendees in the UN General Assembly Hall on Thursday during the opening ceremony of the High-level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, as the only young person in the line-up. Victoria’s powerful speech gripped the room when she said, “we are all the 18 million people of Bangladesh projected to be climate refugees by mid-Century. We are all the nations of the Global South being disproportionately affected by climate disruption. And we, together, must unite to save ourselves.”

In an interview conducted by ACE Fellow, Dinaz Kureishy, with actor, Forest Whitaker, shortly after Victoria’s speech, he said “they [the youth] must manifest in their lives and environment, invest themselves in the future. You are a leader by coming here today. Help give them opportunity, and lead them.” He called on world leaders to be “the architects shaping the world's future." As a young person, I learned today that there is an entire population that cares about what is happening to the earth around us.

The real question I’m left with is: will caring be enough to create change?

In a riveting speech given by actor, Leonardo DiCaprio this morning, he said, “You know climate change is happening faster than even the most pessimistic scientists warned us before. Think about the shame that each one of us will carry when our children and grandchildren look back and realize we had the means to stop the devastation, but lacked the political will to do so.” He continued, “Our planet cannot be saved unless we leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong. Now is the time for bold, unprecedented action.” I couldn’t agree more with Mr. DiCaprio. That’s why I’m spending this Earth Day reporting from the UN Digital Media Zone on behalf of young people across the planet.

Read the original article here. 

We care about climate change. We also care about your environmental stories. Therefore, we are very grateful to have received dozens of amazing photos under this week’s theme #water that showed us how much you care about climate change. As a result, we are very pleased to announce that this week we have chosen not only one, but 7 finalists: well done, Roni Akbar, Audrey Cano Bárcenas, Temitope Aderibigbe, Mahmood Dadamia, Olumide Climate Idowu, Kate Berrisfod and Marissa Malahayati. Your photos are inspiring us and, most of all, inspiring you to continue spreading the word to take action on climate change.

We do really appreciate all photos submitted, so they are featured on Connect4Climate Facebook album. We challenge you to continue to raise awareness and share your climate change story with us: next Monday - 25 April we will annouce new theme. Don't forget to follow @Connect4Climate on Instagram, using the hashtag #Photo4Climate. 

More details here.

The record number of countries set to sign the Paris Agreement in New York on April 22 signals the next step towards the Agreement coming into force and a critical juncture in a global effort to ensure lasting hopes for secure and peaceful, human development.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s dictum that our generation is the first that can end poverty but the last that can act to avoid the worst climate change speaks to the fact that cutting greenhouse gas emissions in time to prevent unmanageable rises in temperature is the one assurance of keeping those hopes on track.

“More carbon in the atmosphere equals more poverty. We cannot deliver sustainable development without tackling climate change, and we cannot tackle climate change without addressing the root causes of poverty, inequality and unsustainable development patterns,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Ms Figueres will moderate a debate with Segolene Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and President of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN climate convention in front of an invited audience, on the margins of the General Assembly meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Thursday April 21.

The realisation that climate change and development are solvable only when seen as inseparable is articulated in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, agreed by nations last September at the UN in New York.

Achievement of the Paris Agreement’s climate goals calls for unprecedented rates of decarbonisation. The short 15 years to 2030 will need to deliver unprecedented outcomes in terms of global well-being and poverty eradication.

Nothing less will do than a massive global transformation to clean energy, restored lands and societies pre-proofed against existing climate change.

“Key actors across government, the private sector and civil society are shaping their vision on how they can best contribute to that objective. We have a short window of opportunity to align strategies and to sharpen the focus on the urgency of implementation. Strategic approaches developed this year will shape the overall path for years to come,” said Ms Figueres.

The SDGs not only contain a distinct climate change goal (#13), but climate action is also integral to the successful implementation of most of the other SDGs under the agenda.

This works in three fundamental ways that underpin the relation between the nature of the climate change threat and aspirations for a better, safer, fairer future.

Climate and development are locked together through basic cause and effect, by the need for an unprecedented transformation to a low-carbon economy and through the demanding timetable of action necessary to stay well below a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise, with 1.5 degrees identified in the Paris Agreement as an even safer line of defence.

These three factors affect every goal.

End extreme poverty. Fight inequality and injustice. Fix climate change. Whoa. The Global Goals are important, world-changing objectives that will require cooperation among governments, international organizations and world leaders. It seems impossible that the average person can make an impact. Should you just give up?

No! Change starts with you. Seriously. Every human on earth—even the most indifferent, laziest person among us—is part of the solution. Fortunately, there are some super easy things we can adopt into our routines that, if we all do it, will make a big difference.

We’ve made it easy for you and compiled just a few of the many things you can do to make an impact.

We are very pleased to announce our first winner of #Photo4Climate Instagram Challenge: congratulations Olumide Climate Idowu. Your photo from Nigeria captures how public #health is being compromised by waste. Here is the original caption:

#ClimateChange & #Health Matters.  Ibadan (Yoruba: Ìbàdàn or fully (Ìlú) Ẹ̀bá-Ọ̀dàn, meaning 'the city at the edge of the savannah' is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area, by population, in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of over 3.5 Million, and the country's largest metropolis by geographical area.
Climate Change Is Real. Poor Management of Our Canal Exposes Healthcare Workers, Waste Handlers and The Community to Infections, toxic effects and injuries. 
Therefore "Ibadan" can and must keep the environment safe. #LetsDoMore 
#Photo4Climate #ClimateWednesday 
Location: Bode Canal, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Photo by: Me

We do really appreciate all photos submitted, so they are featured on Connect4Climate Facebook album. We challenge you to continue to raise awareness and share your climate change story with us: this week's theme is #Water. Don't forget to follow @Connect4Climate on Instagram, using the hashtag #Photo4Climate and this week's theme #Water. Finalist photo will be displayed during the Paris Agreement Signing Ceremony on 22nd April 2016 at UN Headquarters, New York.

More details here.