December 5, 2022
Thank you for coming to Discussion 1: Planet!
Thank you so much to everyone who was able to make it to our first discussion about the planet-related SDGs (6, 12, 13, 14, 15). With your participation, we had a wonderful cross-cultural dialogue about environmental sustainability in addition to an eye-opening speaker, who informed us about Cupertino's local environmental protection measures, the process of implementing local policies, and what individuals can do to help. If you couldn't attend the meeting or are interested in our discussion, here is the link to the recording. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did!
Goal 7 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs Despite past progress, there are still 700 million people worldwide living in the dark, and 2.4 billion are still using harmful and polluting fuels in their everyday lives. Efforts to improve renewable energy and energy efficiency have improved, but progress is not quick enough to achieve Goal 7 in the given timeframe. With the war in Ukraine, energy costs have gone up and increased energy insecurity in Europe. In 2020, 91% of the world population had access to electricity, compared to 83% in 2010. Still, 733 million people are living without electricity, three quarters of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In the past few years, the annual access growth rate was around 0.5%, which needs to grow to 0.9% per year in order to achieve universal access by 2030. This requires significant effort from governments and other actors to reach low-income, fragile, or conflict-affected countries.
COP27: Without Greta, activists make waves at climate summit - BBC News COP27 stands for the 27th Conference of the Parties, referring to the conference of the countries which signed the UN climate framework in 1992. The 27th conference happened in Egypt this year; it is one of the most important climate change summits. In this year’s conference, not only did ministers and presidents from various countries and regions attend, but also the young generation. It is often possible to see young climate activists bring their voice and their message to the table. Though their messages are valuable, there are indeed realistic barriers in terms of the financial problems of these delegates. Since a majority of them come from relatively poor countries, it is often hard for them to pay the accommodation fee. However, despite the financial obstacles and difficulties, we are seeing more and more young climate activists bring their voice to the table. For now, policies are changing regarding the accommodation fee, and it is likely that we will see more young activists bring their perspective to the table of climate discussions and summits.
Energy crisis sparked by Ukraine war to speed up green transition -IEA | Reuters The drop in Russian oil exports has the potential of hastening a transition to green energy and transforming the global energy landscape. Though there have been economic challenges as a result of reduced supplies of Russian oil, natural gas, and coal, this opens up an opportunity to invest in sustainable, long term energy solutions. "The energy world is shifting dramatically before our eyes. Government responses around the world promise to make this a historic and definitive turning point towards a cleaner, more affordable and more secure energy system", said International Energy Agency director Fatih Birol. Clean energy investment worldwide is expected to rise by more than $2 trillion a year. IEA projections predict that global demand for every type of fossil fuel will peak or plateau by 2035.
Further Reading
Want to learn more? Join us for a discussion to collaborate with students across the world, engage in new perspectives on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and connect with UNA-USA officials and members throughout the country.