The Climate Run is an event supported by the Global Youth Climate Network – an initiative of Y2Y - in partnership with Connect4Climate, that invites everyone who is passionate about climate change and the world to take part in a 5K or 15K charity run for climate. The run will take place December 10 in Washington D.C. at 8am.
All times are CET
The Sustainable Innovation in Sport conference brings together key industry stakeholders and leading infuencers who are engendering positive environmental impact through sport.
The sport industry touches hundreds of millions of people globally every year, presenting an unparalleled opportunity to instigate sustainable innovation from within the sports teams, stadiums, governing bodies, ministries – all the way to individual fans’ behaviour.
Our central question:
IMPACT STORIES
Every year, we discover natural leaders - students, entrepreneurs, and athletes. They dream to build their own future and we do our best to support them. There are some of our young leaders, symbols of hard work and perseverance:
Alphonse is a young and bright Togolese who participated in our activities in the village of Kpalimé from 2013-2014. Despite facing many obstacles, in particular the absence of a father, he never gave up. We recommended him to the African Leadership Academy (ALA), a school of excellence in South Africa. After two years at ALA, he was accepted by the University of Rochester in the United States where he is studying electrical and computer engineering.
Freddy is one of the most gifted young basketball players we’ve met in Togo. In 2014, we helped him to spend a week at the SEED (a basketball academy in Senegal). Then we sent him to a NBA camp in Burkina Faso. The NBA is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. A few months later, Freddy received a scholarship to pursue his dream at Liberty Christian School in the United States.
Mariette was orphaned by her mother and not recognized by her father. We met her in Lomé. She was captain of an under-18 (U18) Togolese national team that LYSD initiated in 2015 in partnership with the Togolese Basketball Federation. That same year, we provided her with a scholarship for her last year in high school, and she is currently studying English at the University of Lomé.
Flora is a 17-year-old Ivorian girl from Yopougon who left school in seventh grade because her mother was not able to pay her school fees. She discovered basketball in 2015, and the court became an escape and a way to make friends. She has been enrolled in the U18 national team and has found the courage to start taking French lessons. We gave her a scholarship, and she subsequently joined our pool of young educated.
Nono is in high school in Lomé. We offered her a scholarship this season. A member of our U18 selection, she became a young educator in our organization. We count on her leadership and strong values to spark interest among young girls.
Merveille, from the village of Kouvé, entered high school when she was just 13 years old. A natural leader, she does not hesitate to raise her voice to denounce discrimination, especially from the boys in her village. We offered her a scholarship this year, and we believe in her capacity to become a spokeswoman in her community.
We are honoured to witness these children and youth growing day after day, both on and off the court.
The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) and the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12) will be held in Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco from 7-18 November 2016.
Take a look at Connect4Climate's activities and events at COP22, were we kick off with a screening of the Film4Climate trailer.
Today’s youth are energized to tackle climate change. They are supporting initiatives around the global to call for ambitious climate action. At the American School of Brasilia, during their annual basketball tournament, the #1o5C campaign was presented as a bold call to action.
Emil Raiser emphasizes: “Being able to represent the 1.5 campaign in our EAB Basketball Invitational was a huge honor. Not only was it a sublime success to advertise the logo on our tournaments shirts, but also, more importantly to spread the message conveyed by the campaign to an international audience. I hope for bright and flourishing future with the campaign.”
The #1o5C campaign, presented by the Sport4Climate initiative of the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate program, calls for action to prevent global warming below 1.5°C. Key partners include the Climate Vulnerable Forum, UNDP, UNEP, GIP, Care, CAN International, Purpose and many more, who lent their efforts to materialize the campaign, brining more than 135 athletes on board during the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Find out more about the campaign: 1o5c.org
[video: https://youtu.be/LGXIaUNNtbU]
New York, 8 September – Today, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) joined the UN climate change secretariat’s initiative Climate Neutral Now, becoming the first international sports organisation to do so.
The Climate Neutral Now initiative represents a global community of organisations committing to becoming climate neutral by the second half of the 21st century. Climate Neutral Now calls on organisations and individuals to measure, reduce and report greenhouse gas emissions and compensate those which cannot be avoided with UN-certified emission reductions. The initiative was launched in September, 2015 by a founding group of organisations that included Microsoft, Sony, the adidas Group and Marks & Spencer.
Today’s announcement was made during a panel discussion at UN headquarters in New York. FIFA’s Secretary General, Ms. Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura, and Mr. David Nabarro, Special Adviser on Agenda 2030 for the UN Secretary General, were in attendance, along with the Director of Strategy of the UNFCCC secretariat, Halldór Thorgeirsson, and FIFA’s Head of Sustainability and Diversity, Federico Addiechi.
The event also featured a video message by actor and activist Edward Norton, champion of Climate Neutral Now and UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity. The message invites individuals and organisations to take action, including through the Climate Neutral Now initiative.
FIFA’s Secretary General, Ms Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura said:
“Each one of us, as well as every organisation, has to take responsibility for the world we live in and lead by example. By joining the Climate Neutral Now campaign, we pledge to continue to strive towards becoming greenhouse gas emission-neutral by the mid-21st century. We also commit, as we did in Brazil in 2014, to measuring, reducing and offsetting our greenhouse gas emissions at the next edition of the FIFA World Cup, scheduled to take place in Russia in 2018. Beyond that and through the power of football, we also aim to inspire greater awareness and best practices in sustainability standards.”
UNFCCC’s Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa said:
“The climate talks in Paris this past December highlighted the critical role that non-state actors—corporations, NGOs and individuals—are playing in addressing climate change. Every sector has an important role, but we are excited by the potential that sports organisations represent. More than one billion people watched the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil. There’s enormous potential for inspiring sports fans around the globe, in addition to the action that the sports organizations are taking in-house.”
Actor and Climate Neutral Now supporter Edward Norton said:
“Do something about your personal climate footprint – it can be as simple as driving a little less, using mass transit a little more, turning of the television or AC in the room when you are not in it, just simple little things to observe and change wasteful habits that we all have.”
