The following is the first entry in a series of short personal weekly accounts on how each member of the C4C team is reducing their impact on the environment.
The last few years have seen an unprecedented shift in the way national and international governmental institutions, as well as the business community and representatives of civil society, consider sustainable development.
<p>A workshop bringing together industry, government and academic leaders was organized on 28 January to present the results three years of research on collaboration between governments, international organizations and corporates for a more sustainable economy.<br />
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The participants debated key questions related to the organizational change and learning challenges that companies face when they attempt to make sense of, and manage, sustainability issues as well as rapidly evolving stakeholder expectations in corporate behavior.</p>
<p>The main focus of the discussion addressed: How do firms learn to integrate and manage sustainability and climate change issues in their business model?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/legacy/La_Camera-Opening-2.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 450px;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Francesco La Camera addresses the workshop. Photo Credit: Max Falcone</em></p>
<p>Francesco La Camera, Director General of the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea, opened the workshop explaining the strategic role of governments in the future. He emphasized that sustainability and climate change issues will be the focal point of every country in the future:“In 2016 a Nation cannot play any international role without a clear sustainability strategy.”</p>
<p>He stressed that both financial tools and education in support of advancing climate and sustainability solutions were necessary requirements to help address the future challenges. “We need specific financial tools based on sustainability issues: two days ago China and UK agreed on a common investment find for sustainability projects,” said Mr. La Camera</p>
<p>Mr. La Camera’s speech was followed by interventions from universities, corporates and international organizations.</p>
<p>From academia the main take away messages included that we have to act as think-tanks to provide operational tools to the management through dedicated observatories and indicators. Stefano Gardi, Director of Sustainable Development Department at Italcementi said: <strong>“It's impossible to be really sustainable if the human resources managers don't reorganize incentives and career patterns considering sustainability achievements.”</strong></p>
<p>Companies that are takings sustainability and climate targets seriously are also considered great places to work: <strong>“Carbon neutral companies have always a higher ranking for internal climate and employees satisfaction. Being sustainable means being more effective and profitable.”</strong></p>
<p>Maria Cristina Papetti, Head of Sustainability Projects and Practice Sharing at Enel emphasized that <strong>“we don't distinguish anymore between sustainability goals and profit goals; Creating Shared Values and innovating through sustainability is our mission.”</strong></p>
<p>Similarly, laudio Puliti, Head of CSR and Sustainability at ACEA noted: <strong>“public companies can be sustainable if they engage territories and citizens in strategic decisions. As the main Italian public company providing water; we are a B Corporation.”</strong></p>
<p>Speaking about Unicoop, Massimo Favilli, Director of political relations, emphasized the need for sustainability to continue operations, <strong>“we were born in 1945 for mutualistic collaboration: our participatory business strategy must be based on sustainability.”</strong></p>
<p>Maurizio Zollo, Sustainability and Strategy Professor of Università Bocconi, concluded: <strong>“Delivering on the UN Agenda 2030 will require the business sector to complete its transition from sustainability as a stakeholder engagement exercise to redesigning the firm in all its core functions to integrate the contributions of all stakeholders. None of the Sustainable Development Goals and the COP21 targets will be reached without a profound innovation and change effort by the private sector. The question is how to facilitate and reduce the risks connected to the effort. The collaboration of institutions, civil society and academia will be necessary and, hopefully, well appreciated in this respect.”</strong></p>
Connect4Climate participated in the international conference on Communication/Culture and The Sustainable Development Goals (CCSDG): Challenges for a New Generation held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 17 to 21 December 2015.
The themes of the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change is very timely, so soon after the COP 21 in Paris. But, as Prof. Rome Chiranukrom, the Vice President for International Relations and Alumni Affairs at Chiang Mai University, reminded us, the focus on the role and place of communication and culture has added additional value to these themes, which are normally monopolized by economics, engineers and politicians. Prof. Rome warned that “the future of our planet and the peaceful and harmonious survival of us as a human race” are at stake! More than a choice on the basis of technology assessments, economic or political models, this challenge appeals on our moral and ethical values as people.
The “new” problems we face may take years, and in the case of climate change, several generations of the world community to resolve. How do we build consensus and muster the altruistic intent of the present generation to consume less, de-escalate conflict, and subject ourselves to medical research so that future generations who will exist long after we are gone may inherit a habitable planet?
The tried and tested methods of agriculture extension, social mobilization, community participation, and multi-lateral negotiation are unlikely to succeed on their own as these systemic problems grow in their severity and people submit to innate human instincts for self-preservation and compete even more keenly for rapidly dwindling natural resources, ratchet-up violence, resist Hippocratic principles to share limited supplies of vaccines and medicines, hoard energy and water, and close markets to international commerce. We do not have appropriate strategies to begin addressing these “new” and highly complex challenges. That’s the challenge the conference participants were challenged to come to grips with in order to formulate realistic and sustainable solutions for future generations.
About 150 people had initially expressed an interest in this conference. After the first selection 70 abstracts were invited to be submitted as full papers. Of these 70, 51 were accepted forpresentation during the conference. Covering a wide range of topics, the presentations were organized in three plenary sessions – “Sustainability Redefined,” “Strategies for Commons Transition and Sustainable Development” and “Learning the Practice of Rural Development Professionalism: Challenging the Professional 2.0,” – and 15 panel sessions ranging from “Mindfulness, Religion and Social Communication” over “Small, slow and big data for Sustainable Development” to “Migration, Ethnicity and Identity,” with special case studies on Thailand, Myanmar and China. After further peer review, a selection of the best conference papers will be published either as special issues in academic journals or considered for book series.
In addition, Action4Climate winning films were showcased in one afternoon as well as presentations on “the Mekong Land Forum”, “Indigenous People and Communication”, “Migrant Workers and Communication”, and “Human Trafficking.”
About 100 participants, coming from ASEAN and other Asian countries like China, India, the UAE, and Taiwan, in addition to scholars from the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, The Netherlands … engaged in lively discussions on the above topics.
The following questions guided the discussions and deliberations:
a) How do you make a complex subject like sustainable development or climate change simple and understandable to a general audience?
b) What are the main opportunities and challenges you face when trying to communicate to your audiences on the need for sustainability or climate action?
c) What is communication for sustainable development, or climate change communication doing right? What is it doing wrong? How can it be more effective?
d) What kinds of messages have you used that successfully motivated and engaged people to care about sustainable development or climate change?
e) How do we bridge the gap between communication for social change awareness and action?
f) How can what you do be scaled up and replicated?
g) How do we broaden the discussion and diversify the movement?
h) How can we communicate the outcomes of our conference and what needs to happen next to citizens around the world?
Prof. Jan Servaes presented a set of recommendations for a research/academic agenda for the future of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/start-sustainable-development-goals-academicresearch-agenda-servaes?trk=prof-post
The conference was hosted by the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD) at Chiang Mai University in partnership with the Asian Congress of Mass Communication (ACMC), BGreen Project, Connect4Climate, RMIT Melbourne, Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) and the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong, and Wageningen University. Additional support was received from UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector both in Paris and the Bangkok office, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Connect4Climate and Urban Specialists from the World Bank Group were invited to present during the EcoCity World Summit held in Abu Dhabi in October last year.
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Salim Rouhana speaks on a panel at EcoCities World Summit, Abu Dhabi, 2015.</em></p>
<p>The current structure and development of modern Arabian cities seems to go against the current trend of promoting sustainability. In contrast it appears that urban sprawl featuring car oriented growth and individual housing proliferation is the name of the game. This is extremely visible in the suburban development of cities such as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha.</p>
<p>It is often argued that previously tribal or rural societies have to go through this transition prior to attaining a social and spatial optimum of urban living. This is partially true. Arab countries, especially in the Gulf, have been and still are urbanizing rapidly, principally driven by oil-based economic growth and transformation. This urbanization was accompanied by massive public investments in infrastructure and service delivery extremely useful, but could in certain contexts be inefficient due to sprawl. This sprawl also affects lower middle income and poor communities that can less afford the suburb-to-city center commutes.</p>
<p>Most Arab governments are continuously struggling and torn between the need for efficiency and compact urban development, and sprawl, presumably driven by social preferences and behaviors. Environmental arguments despite their importance do not suffice to curb this development trend. Financial incentives and behavioral shifts are needed, to encourage? new urban residents to live in more compact settings.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">World leaders discuss the challenge of building sustainable cities. <a href="https://twitter.com/SalimRouhana" target="_blank">@SalimRouhana</a> present <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate" target="_blank">@Connect4Climate</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ECWS2015" target="_blank">@ECWS2015</a> <a href="http://t.co/idHus6AE9k" target="_blank">http://t.co/idHus6AE9k</a></p>
— Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate/status/653314523772887041" target="_blank">October 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<p>Governments should be looking at the demand and outcome factors and the impacts of density. On the first, fiscal (and other financial and non-financial) incentives are essential to curb developers but also consumers, into vertical living. On the outcome end, dense and compact cities, and the economies of scale they create, as proven in many researches, are directly correlated to innovation fostering, primarily due to the proximity and agglomeration effects.</p>
<p>This said, sustainable building dynamics take time to shift, working simultaneously on both policies and behavior shifts remain important to accelerate this transition. The notion of common urban good, space, environment, and culture, are more appealing to the younger generations, and so there is an opportunity not to be missed to have them part, but also drivers, of this transformation. This process is ongoing in other regions of the world such as Europe and Latin America, where smart and inclusive urban development was part of this transformation process.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/MasdarCity-crop.jpg" style="width: 1000px; height: 563px;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Masdar City Render. Photo Credit: Foster & Patners</em></p>
<p>Changes, however, seem to be coming - none radical, but soft measures that could lead us on to better city environments. Governments are passing clear messages to citizens that subsidies will be reduced on services and housing, perhaps driven by the drastic drop in oil prices and the reduction of resources. In addition, Governments are starting to experience direct linkages between densification, sustainability, livability, and competitiveness.</p>
<p>What we are seeing in Abu Dhabi with the <a href="http://www.masdar.ae/en/masdar-city/live-work-play" target="_blank">Masdar City Pilot</a> goes in this direction. It tailors well to a fast growing young generation that will shape-up the future of today’s aging cities, and which is much more sensitive to a ‘collective’ future. This generation will live in the rapidly densifying and re-densifying cities, where individual space will be traded for proximity to jobs, fun, and services. This young generation will shape-up the face of Arabian Cities, if and only if, policies are in tune</p>
Sundrentched fields in South Africa. Photo Credit: Max Thabiso Edkins
In a country where the average rainfall is 495mm as compared to a global average of 1033mm, South Africa is recognised to be a water scarce country. South Africa is a water-constrained country because of low and unpredictable supply, coupled with high demand (we use 98% of our available water resources) and poor use of existing resources (dripping taps, acid mine drainage and sewerage pollution).
Low and unpredictable supply is a common experience in the townships and informal settlements where Afrika Tikkun operates its Youth Development Centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town. In those areas, water is frequently cut for days and weeks, twice or more a month. This is even worse in households in provinces like Mpumalanga and Limpopo, 63.1% and 61.4% of whom reported on the most frequent interruptions of water services (lasting between 2 and 15 days at a time).
This is a well-documented and highly contested reality for people living in rural areas and informal settlements, who experience “intense inequity in the delivery of water”. Research recently commissioned by the South African Council of Churches show South Africa has worse inequality now than at the end of apartheid.
After 21 years of democracy, those areas which lack water and sanitation mirror apartheid spatial geography: Black and poor former homelands, townships and informal settlements are the areas. This lack of access to water and sanitation has an impact on other rights including rights to dignity, health, and safety. For instance, in many parts of Diepsloot, raw sewerage pours into the streets day and night. This has severe health implications.
Water needed for survival. Photo Credit: Mohamed Bahloul
According to Statistics South Africa's most recent general house survey, only 46.3% of South Africans have access to safe drinking in their houses. Approximately 20.5% of households do not have access to ‘RDP─standard’ sanitation (e.g. flush toilets connected to a sewerage system or a septic tank).
Most of South Africa’s water is used by business, especially agribusiness (57%), mining and other industries (7%). Based on an assessment of the provision of water services by the South African Human Rights Commission, 23 municipalities (9% of the total) were in a crisis state, with an acute risk of disease outbreak; and a further 38% were at high risk, with the potential to deteriorate into a state of crisis.
At the moment households receive 6 kilolitres of free water per month, or 25 litres a day. World average water consumption is 173 litres per person per day. The free basic allowance is enough to flush the toilet twice for a family of eight. Director of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Patrick Bond shows however that the price of water has more than doubled since introducing the free basic water making it one of the most expensive waters in a third world country.
Young people today are growing up with effects of climate challenge and this immediate threat makes them more leaders of today rather than tomorrow.
<p>Connect4Climate joined the UNFCCC to organize the first ever Education Day on December 4 at a climate conference in support of Article 8 of the Paris agreement, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information. The main message was that climate education is a fundamental pre-requisite to advance climate solutions to achieve a resilient, low-carbon future. Max Edkins presented the Connect4Climate strategy at the <a href="http://connect4climate.org/initiative/cop21-youth-heart-climate-talks&q…; target="_blank">Non-formal Education</a> side-event and announced <a href="http://connect4climate.org/event/fiat-lux-illuminating-our-common-home&…; target="_blank">Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home</a>.</p>
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<p><em>Connect4Climate presented as best-case study at UN Alliance Side Event on Non-Formal Climate Change Education and Innovative Approaches for Climate Change Learning. Photo Credit: UNFCCC</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">On December 8, a coalition convened by the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate initiative presented a gift of contemporary public art entitled <a href="http://connect4climate.org/initiative/climate-deal-expectations-rise-ex…; target="_blank">Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home</a> to Pope Francis on the opening day of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, to galvanize action and drive global attention to the importance of tackling climate change. The large-scale architectural public art installation was inspired by the themes of climate change, human dignity and the earth’s living creatures in the Encyclical “Laudato Si’” of Pope Francis. Programmed to coincide not only with the Jubilee, but also with COP21 in Paris, the historic occasion called on citizens of the world to join a global movement to protect our common home.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The cinematic event featured the work of some of the world’s most notable humanistic and nature photographers and filmmakers including Sebastião Salgado (Genesi and Contrasto), Joel Sartore (National Geographic Photo Ark), Yann Arthus Bertrand (Human), David Doubilet, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson (Samsara), Howard Hall, Shawn Heinrichs, Greg Huglin, Chris Jordan, Steve McCurry, Paul Nicklen and Louie Schwartzberg. The projection is curated by Louie Psihoyos and Travis Threlkel, and produced by Obscura Digital. Francesco Carrozzini curated the Creative Direction for Connect4Climate. <a href="https://vimeo.com/149443978" target="_blank">See the full experience on the Connect4Climate Vimeo channel</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">[video:https://vimeo.com/148381415]</p>
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<p>Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group: "We are honored to be working with the Vatican to raise awareness of an issue so critical to our shared goal of ending extreme poverty. The poorest people in the world are disproportionately affected by the effects of a warming climate and are most vulnerable to natural disasters and extreme weather. This impressive initiative will draw global attention to the urgency of tackling climate change for the sake of people and our planet."</p>
<p>By December 9 the event had already reached 53 million impressions and 2.6K mentions and since then the event has been featured in all major news outlets. A BBC News video of it on Facebook already has more than 2 million views.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Have you seen our beautiful photos of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FiatLux?src=hash" target="_blank">#FiatLux</a> event? Take a look: <a href="https://t.co/mowQlPOhdW" target="_blank">https://t.co/mowQlPOhdW</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OurCommonHome?src=hash" target="_blank">#OurCommonHome</a> <a href="https://t.co/CNrJXqWdNr" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/CNrJXqWdNr</a></p>
— Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate/status/674709169828704256" target="_blank">December 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<p>With Connect4Climate's participation in the high-level Climate Change Communication Event on December 9 (<a href="http://unfccc6.meta-fusion.com/cop21/events/2015-12-09-15-00-un-climate…; target="_blank">see the recording here</a>) we announced the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2015/03/20/film4climate-…; target="_blank">Film4Climate International Charter.</a></p>
<p>The Charter has been in the making for a number of months and the emerging document is the result of lengthy discussions among film executives, film makers and film administrators at workshops and presentations around the world over the past two years, culminating in an international conference on November 25th in Paris organized by EcoProd, the environmental arm of the Ile de France Film Commission; CESAR, the Social, Economic and Environmental Council for the Ile de France and Connect4Climate.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/_DSC9622%20%281%29.jpg" style="width: 1000px; height: 663px;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>High-level Climate Change Communication Event at COP21 with (R to L) Nick Nuttall, Kathleen Rogers, David de Rothschild, Bianca Jagger, Donald Ranvaud, Blanca Juti, Max Schorr and Angelique Kidjo. Photo Credit: Max Edkins</em></p>
<p>The aim is for the Charter to form the base for action in conjunction with COP 21 decisions where working groups will determine the details of how best to implement widespread ‘green’ production guidelines internationally, and also propagate further integration of sustainable lifestyle decisions into content and storylines.</p>
<p>“The document responds to a general feeling among the participants that it is something the industry can and should do universally to answer the challenges of climate change, while at the same time recognizing the importance of flexibility when t comes to specifics, specifics especially with regards to the vast differences in scale of production and regional or local customs and requirements” noted Donald Ranvaud, creative producer of Connect4Climate.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/rene_leys" target="_blank">@rene_leys</a> announced the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Film4Climate?src=hash" target="_blank">#Film4Climate</a> charter at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COP21?src=hash" target="_blank">#COP21</a> - an international effort to advance sustainability <a href="https://t.co/rVYsP7ZILE" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/rVYsP7ZILE</a></p>
— Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate/status/674602294244212737" target="_blank">December 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<p>At COP21 Max Edkins and Donald Ranvaud explained the #Youth4Climate and #Film4Climate initiatives of the Connect4Climate Program of the World Bank Group.</p>
<p>[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kZmPzJLWy0]</p>
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Connect4Climate recently co-hosted Sustainability Week, a series of panel discussions and events with the Hospital Club, a social venue in central London, created by Paul Allen co-founder of Microsoft and Dave Stewart of the Euryt
