A Journey Filled with Sweat and Tears

One cold and windy evening in February 2013, we received a call from Dr. Leszek Sibilski, our professor of contemporary social problems at the University of Maryland. He told us about a unique opportunity to make a short video documentary at a World Bank event organized by Connect4 Climate (C4C) entitled “Right Here, Right Now.”

Immediately, we sensed it would be an interesting endeavor and we spontaneously said: “Let’s do it!”

We are two young Chinese women studying in the U.S. Yaqi Liu is an undergraduate broadcast journalism student. In her sophomore year, she decided to take Sibilski’s contemporary social problems class, which ultimately changed her life in an incredible way. She talked about the class to her friend, Marianne Ma, who was doing first-year graduate studies in Supply Chain Management at the same university. Yaqi was enthusiastic about all the social changes and movements that professor Sibilski mentioned in class and Marianne was inspired by her enthusiasm.

We decided to talk with professor Sibilski, asking him for opportunities to witness or even participate in current social movements. The trip to the World Bank headquarters was exactly the opportunity we were hoping for.

Although we did not have professional equipment or sophisticated video production skills, we were passionate, feeling that this project would be challenging and interesting. But we never thought it would raise our social consciousness, and perhaps even change the path of our lives as well.

The first solar-powered flight across the Pacific Ocean is now past the point of no return. Pilot André Borschberg now must commit to flying five days and nights until he lands in Hawaii.

What better way to demonstrate the importance of the pioneering, innovative spirit than by achieving “impossible” things with renewable energy - and by highlighting new solutions for environmental problems?

With this in mind, Solar Impulse launched the global campaign #FUTUREISCLEAN.

If technological solutions exist allowing an airplane to fly day and night without fuel, imagine the potential of similar technologies in helping us in our daily lives with energy savings andreducing C02 emissions. "We would like to capitalize on the tremendous media coverage of Solar Impulse flying around the world to promote the various social and economic benefits our planet can derive from a clean future! Only a significant worldwide support will push governments to replace old polluting technologies with clean and efficient technologies.

This is what we want to create throughout our solar powered Round-The-World Flight!" says Bertrand Piccard, pilot and founder of Solar Impulse. Piccard is also known for completing the first hot air balloon flight around the world.

Solar Impulse 2 takes off to Hawaii. Photo credit: Solar Impulse

Support the campaign by registering on www.futureisclean.org

“The question facing us today is not so much whether man will be able to go even further and people other planets, but how to organize ourselves to make life on earth more and more worthy of living”, August Piccard declared in 1931 following his first balloon ascent into the stratosphere. What could be more logical, seventy years later, than that his grandson should launch a project that combines scientific exploration with the promotion of renewable energies?

The idea of Solar Impulse came to Bertrand Piccard following the first round-the-world balloon flight with Brian Jones in 1999. It was the realization that a lack of fuel could have caused his adventure to fail that led him to promise to circumnavigate the world a second time, but this time without fuel or polluting emissions.

Solar Impulse's ultimate adventure: a round-the-world flight. Photo credit: Solar Impulse

After the take-off on 9th of March in Abu Dhabi, the team of Solar Impulse 2 had to stopover in Japan and wait several weeks for a good weather window to cross the pacific. Finally, yesterday 18.00 UMT, André Borschberg took off successfully. The relief about the continuation of the journey was noticeable in the whole team; Betrand Piccard: "The point of no return for this flight to Hawaii was also the point of no return for the entire project."

Pilot André Borschberg on board of Solar Impulse 2. Photo credit: Solar Impulse

The flight to Hawaii will last around 120 hours and it will be the longest flight ever made by a solar-powered airplane in terms of both duration and distance. The pilot will be exposed to extreme conditions during the next leg to Hawaii, living in the confinement of a 3.8m3 cockpit. He will be facing many human, technical and operational challenges which have been carefully researched, developed and simulated, and will be in constant communication with the Mission Control Center.

During the coming months, Piccard and Borschberg will continue the journey and stop in Midwestern United States, New York, Northern Africa or Southern Europe before attempting to return to Abu Dhabi having travelled 35,000 kilometers around the globe, accumulating 500 flight hours over five months to spread the message that clean technologies can achieve the impossible.

[video:https://vimeo.com/98563072]

Roughly one person every second is displaced by a climate- or weather-related disaster and in the last six years, 140.5 million people - two percent of the Earth’s population - has been displaced by such disasters alone. With millions of people forced to move each year by rapid-onset climate-related hazards and slow-onset environmental degradation, social well-being, human rights, economies and even state stability are at risk.

To coincide with UN Human Rights Day, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is highlighting the need for climate change to be viewed through a human rights lens. Climate change is magnifying the existing vulnerabilities of affected communities and eroding their capacity to cope with change. The global community is failing to provide the protection, assistance and access to durable solutions that those on the frontlines of climate change require and deserve.

In a new report released today, ‘Falling through the Cracks’, the EJF examines the various legal and policy frameworks governing climate-induced displacement at the international level. EJF has found that the ‘protection gap’ is more like a series of holes - suggesting the need for a new global framework, which is broad in scope and sensitive to the needs of multiple populations of concern.

Environmental governance is about political environmental policy related to defining, developing and implementing the elements needed to achieve sustainability. It is about the design and execution of policy. All human activities; political, social and economic, should be understood and managed as subsets of the environment and ecosystems. Governance includes not only government, but also business and civil society, and emphasizes a holistic system management. Environmental Governance in Africa has not been as successful as in Europe or North America because of lack of effective coordination. Environmental experts have identified the absence of coordination among governmental agencies as a major challenge confronting environmental governance in Africa. Also sovereignty, existing divergent values, different levels of development, corruption and insincerity of purpose are challenges militating against a healthy environment in Africa.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been the forerunner in involving governments in developing and implementing Environmental Law or Governance. However, since its establishment in 1972, the number of Governmental institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) dealing with environmental matters and related issues in the African continent have increased. In 2000 for example, statistics show that there were respectively 49 to 59 NGOs per million people in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. The role of Environmental NGOs’ include but are not limited to promoting activities such as environmental education and advocacy, participation in environmental policy-making and implementation, and business-NGO partnerships. It is unfortunate that with all NGO-governmental efforts, the economic significance derived from environmental governance is yet to be fully understood or acted upon hence the myriad of environmental challenges currently present in the African continent.

A recent report by the Institute for Security Studies in Africa (ISS) suggests that Africa’s challenges are linked to environmental insecurity and the development catastrophe, which includes poverty, water scarcity, degradation and inequitable distribution of natural resources, loss of arable land, food insecurity, coastal degradation and wetlands intrusion. These have posed (and continue to pose) great institutional challenges in Africa. Furthermore, many African countries are severely strained by these problems which are intricately intertwined and compounded by rapid population growth and migration causing unanticipated pressure on the resource base.  As a result the international community has placed immense demands on these countries, yet these African countries lack the capacity to cope with these changes and where they make an effort, it is negligible.  Therefore, many environmental institutions in Africa require an overhaul in guiding principles, policies and laws. For effective environmental governance in Africa; national governments require a lot of assistance if at all they are to contribute to sustainable development. It is also notable that national implementation of the Agenda 21 and Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in Africa has barely progressed and results remain to be seen. This is owed to diverse institutional and policy challenges, most common being ineffective governance structures, lack of adequate expertise, inadequate finances, lack of tools and equipment to implement and enforce current laws and international conventions, conflicting sectoral strategies towards human and natural development, unsustainable trade policies and corporate unaccountability. To address these challenges it is important to effectively address the synergies created between different MEAs. Governments should prioritize on expanded capacity-building programs and develop stronger commitment and discipline toward environmental policy.

Full Implementation of the Agenda 21 and MEAs can be achieved through advanced communication by MEA secretariats - a role played by United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). However, communication is faced with challenges that include false reporting and inadequate sharing of environmental databases among institutions. Rwanda, for example, is working toward enhancing the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA) which consolidates and coordinates the country’s information technology resources. Since RITA ensures information flow among sectors, this is great initiative for other African countries to borrow from. In summary, African countries will achieve effective environmental governance, if all of its countries demonstrate their capacity to conquer environmental challenges.

In conclusion, Global Environmental Governance (GEG) has not ignored Africa’s challenges; one of the two themes for discussion at Rio+20—the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, to take place in June, 2012—is “Institutional Frameworks for Sustainable Development,” within which GEG reform is a key area for discussion. The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), funded by the Danish government, and working closely with UNEP and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), has embarked upon a project that seeks to make an intellectual contribution on GEG reform to the African preparatory process for Rio+20. Through two high-level African consultations, the project seeks to identify key issues for Africa in GEG reform and to draw out options that are not currently part of Africa’s official preparatory process.

Children and youth are amongst the largest stakeholders of civil society but, sadly, continue to be the least represented. Due to pre-conceived notions about our capabilities, we are often taken for granted and not allowed to have a say in determining our future. The youth of today are aghast at the escalating rate of environmental degradation and at the prospect of us, future generation, inheriting a barren planet that cannot sustain its inhabitants.

We cannot and should not remain mute observers at the increasing imbalance of the three pillars of sustainability. With the global population crossing 7 billion, the earth's finite natural resources are under tremendous strain. Economic progress is being achieved at the cost of the environment while, paradoxically, the polarization between the global north and south continues to increase. Vast tracts of forests are getting wiped out daily, fresh water bodies are being polluted by industrial effluents, millions of hectares of arable land are degrading into deserts and multitudes of species are being pushed towards extinction. The rapid increase in the global carbon footprint is having a hugely detrimental effect on our climate.

[video:https://vimeo.com/101874077]

Performing climate justice song Tree planting is an integral part of all our academies as we feel that this is the simplest and most effective way of combatting climate change. It is also very relevant to the region we live in, since deserts surround us. Trees not only stop land degradation, they also reduce your carbon footprint, retain water and positively impact climate change. As an outcome of our academies, our members have planted thousands of trees not just in the UAE, but in other countries as well. Each academy is taught by a fresh group of members and during our preparations we train them on public speaking and presentation skills. Our academies are now much awaited events and not only schools, even corporates, have started to invite us to hold sessions for their employees. We have also begun conducting road shows so that we can reach out to a wider segment of civil society.

The private sector has a huge responsibility in working to slow climate change, but what’s its role in developing policies? Recently an innovative report by UNEP, WRI, WWF, Ceres and CDP was released, providing guidelines to companies in best using their influence to shape good climate policies. The “Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy”, which was developed based on interviews with more than 75 leading companies, policymakers and investors, is intended to compel businesses to identify, align and report their actions towards climate policies in order to bring transparency and accountability. 

Since there has been much inconsistency in companies’ sustainability commitments and their lobbying actions, CDP has recently called on corporations to disclose their climate lobbying positions. The Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy can help in managing and reporting influences on climate policy to make sure that proposed sustainability commitments are linked with lobbying actions.

This guide is innovative and inspiring; by helping companies take responsibility and subtly calling them out for working against climate policies, we find a way to incorporate corporations into the conversation without making them seem like the enemy. It is true that corporate influences have presented a major obstacle to the climate policy process, but private sector participation is necessary to establish a low-carbon economy. The UN Global Compact reports that “only 30% of leading companies have aligned their lobbying with their corporate responsibility commitments”, but with more pressure to ensure transparency and accountability, there will be a stronger business for consistency.

At COP19, business leaders and government officials came together to learn about this new guide at the Caring for the Climate Business Forum at the UNFCCC in Poland.  Other business forums at the UNFCCC this year, like the Climate Solutions 2013, help the private and public sector work together to find solutions and be able to come up with a global climate agreement in 2015. At the UNFCCC’s Business, Industry & NGOs Day, Christina Figueres stressed that “we must hear loudly and clearly that the private sector is willing to participate in markets, increase efficiency, capture technology gains and produce low-carbon products” for an international agreement.

So it seems that we are entering a new paradigm, one in which governments and the public are holding the private sector accountable in their actions towards climate policy. Many companies understand the risks involved in not addressing climate change; in the US, we recently saw the Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy stressing that action on the national level needs to happen. Although many are criticizing corporations for holding COP19 hostage, we must stop labeling companies as the bad guys, and start thinking of how they will be able to help in establishing a new regime of progressive climate policy and a low-carbon economy.

Source: WRI 2013

It is that time of the year when climate change brings the world together. On September 23rd, world leaders will gather in New York, and in December the annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place in Lima, Peru.

In both summits, policy makers, political leaders, the business community, NGOs and civil society will meet to discuss challenges, opportunities and best ways to cope with climate change.

The New York summit is convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, aimed at catalyzing and galvanizing climate actions and decisions.

Of the sectors that are experiencing the adverse effects of climate change, agriculture is doubly affected due to its sensitivity to various climate aspects.

In the past few years, millions of small scale farmers with limited resources available to adapt have felt the heat in different parts of the world.Within East Africa alone, there have been severe droughts in The, erratic weather patterns and outbreaks of crop diseases in Kenya, and floods in Tanzania, just to mention a few.

A farmer tills his land so as to plant drought resistant crops. Photo: Elijah Mumo

This year has not been an exemption in Kenya, as far as these adverse events are concerned. A severe shortage of rain hit Kenya between the months of March and June. During this period, farmers normally expect rain so they can plant maize and a variety of other crops.

Further worsening the situation, maize lethal necrosis has in recent years struck crops in normally high-yielding regions. The disease causes maize plants to wilt and die during their flowering stage.

According to Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), small scale farmers produce about half of food for the Sub-Sahara region. Small holders who own 2 hectares of land or less are the least likely to be resilient to these shocks.

The alliance published the “2014 African Agriculture Status Report” on September 3, in which it argues that these small holder farmers run the risk of experiencing the effects of climate change in severe ways, particularly because about 90% of them rely almost entirely on rain fed agriculture.

The report underscores the importance of addressing climate change to increase African agricultural productivity, improve food security and enhance the resilience of farmers to climate change. The report could not have come at a better time. With the unfolding climate trends, the need for innovative agricultural practices to adapt to the changing climate has never been more urgent.

Earth To Paris, a coalition of partners helping to drive awareness about the connection between people and planet as well as the need for strong climate action, announced it will host “Earth To Paris—Le Hub” a two-day, high-impact, live-streamed summit on 7 and 8 December in Paris during COP21 — the United Nations climate conference to deliver a new universal climate change agreement.

Earth To Paris—Le Hub will provide the opportunity for cross-sector, solutions-oriented engagement in climate change conversations around COP21; a platform for amplifying the conversation across social and digital media; and series of activations through inspiring calls to take bold, meaningful action to address climate change. Experts, advocates, CEOs, and other leaders in Paris will discuss creative and impactful solutions to climate change, while participants around the world take part through multi-language livestreamed video and real-time interactions across multiple social media platforms using the unifying hashtag #EarthToParis.

A unique mix of speakers will share their visions for the future. The first tranche of speakers-- with more to come--includes:

•     Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris
•     Helen Clark, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
•     Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF
•     Irina Bokova, Director-General, UNESCO
•     Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Prime Minister of Norway; Special Envoy, United Nations; Deputy Chair, The Elders; Board Member, United Nations Foundation
•     Esther Agbarakwe, Digital story-teller and +SocialGood Advisor
•     Dr. Paul Bunje, ‎Senior Director of Oceans, XPRIZE Foundation
•     Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, United Nations Foundation
•     Rocky Dawuni, Singer, songwriter, Ambassador for United Nations Foundation-hosted Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
•     Dr. Sylvia Earle, Marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
•     Andrew Freedman, Science editor, Mashable
•     Livia Firth, Film producer; Executive producer, The True Cost
•     Blanca Juti, Chief Brand Officer, Rovio Entertainment Ltd.
•     Dr. Jane Goodall, Primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist; United Nations Messenger of Peace
•     Runa Khan, Executive Director, Friendship Bangladesh
•     Ismaël le Mouël, Co-founder & President at HelloAsso; Founder, Social Good Week Paris; +SocialGood Advisor
•     Anne-Sophie Novel, Economist, journalist, and organizer of Place to B COP 21
•     Dr. M. Sanjayan, Conservation scientist, writer, and Emmy-nominated television news contributor
•     Max Schorr, Co-Founder and Director, GOOD Magazine
•     Jakob Trollbäck, Founder, Trollbäck + Company
•     Ted Turner, Founder and Chairman of United Nations Foundation and Turner Enterprises, Inc.
•     Timothy E. Wirth, Former United States Senator; Vice Chair, United Nations Foundation Board of Directors

COP21 is an extraordinary opportunity for the international community to rise to meet the threat of climate change. With the world recently adopting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a new set of global goals to end poverty in all its forms, fight inequalities and tackle climate change by 2030, Earth to Paris—Le Hub is primed to capture and build on the desire for leaders, businesses, organizations and individuals from the world to come together and call for real change.

The first day of Earth To Paris—Le Hub, 7 December, will convene at the Petit Palais in partnership with the City of Paris, and the second day, 8 December, will be held at UNESCO headquarters.

More information, including background and partner information and a live-stream of Earth to Paris—Le Hub, can be found at www.EarthToParis.org. Download the overview page.

Connect4Climate with The Guardian hosted a Live Q&A Session on May 1 to discuss waste management issues. Questions addressed included: Could a potential waste management crisis actually be an opportunity to innovate in disguise? How can different actors work in partnership to find low-cost, environmentally friendly solutions? And in what type of waste management technologies and program is funding most effectively placed?

The live chat is being fed into the Cittadinanza in Festa 2014 discussions on sustainability and waste, 2-4 May 2014. The event is supported by Connect4Climate and Earthday Italia and will also celebrate Rokia Traoré as a Connect4Climate Global Leader for her commitment and dedication to supporting climate change initiatives around the world.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Limahave come to an end. Due to last minute haggling, the climate conference ran until Sunday morning, well after the official deadline on Friday. In the end, 190 countries agreed on the next steps needed for tackling climate change – what needs to be done now, and what information should be included in pledges by countries for COP 21 in Paris in December 2015, when countries are expected to submit commitments to reduce carbon emissions, and much more.

“Governments leave Lima on a fresh wave of positivity towards Paris with a range of key decisions agreed and action-agendas launched, including on how to better scale up and finance adaptation, alongside actions on forests and education,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework on Climate Change. View more about the final outcomes on the UNFCCC website.

The Conference of Parties got off to a good start, thanks to the building momentum around the world calling for action on climate change. Before the Climate Summit in New York in September, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in 166 countries, calling for immediate action. At the UN Climate Summit businesses joined national and regional governments supporting a price on carbon.

In addition, the European Union reached agreements and, on November 12, the United States and China announced an ambitious cooperation plan for Paris 2015 and actions on climate change after 2020.  This year has also played an essential role in preparing the “field” for solution-oriented agreements that will help fulfill the climate agenda in 2015 leading up to COP 21 in Paris in December.

In Lima, Connect4Climate supported several high-level sessions at COP 20, in particular the Global Landscapes Forum, organized by CIFOR, the Sustainable Innovation Forum, and events hosted by Connect4Climate partners such as TerrAfrica’s panel discussions, UNFCCC youth sessions and the Italian Ministry of the Environment’s high-profile events.