Hong Kong’s first blog for SDG education news and announcements
Nuclear power has had a troubled history in more ways than one. The more recent question revolves around whether we should class it as renewable or non-renewable, safe or dangerous, clean or dirty, polluting or non-polluting. Even the iea seems to be hedging it’s language, saying it “makes no recommendations to countries that choose not to include nuclear power in their energy mix” but concludes that “building sustainable and clean energy systems will be harder, riskier and more expensive without nuclear” as they release a 2022 Fuel Report. Here in Hong Kong, a certain amount of the territory’s electricity supply comes from the Daya Bay plant in mainland China. One of the HK power companies holds a stake in the plant. Certainly nuclear means lower carbon emissions and is safe from global price volatility which oil is most certainly not. On the other hands are the questions of power station construction, the centralized production model, waste . . .
On this Nelson Mandela International Day, it seems appropriate to highlight an initiative from the African continent. “Plastiki Rafiki” was a project started by the Construction by Design (CBD) service club at the International School of Kenya. As a youth-led, non-profit sustainability initiative, this is very much the kind of thing the ITS Foundation supports and celebrates. Essentially, the initiative sees a range of groups sourcing plastic waste in their areas, upcycling the waste into new products and selling them on a self-funding, cost recovery basis. They explain it all best on their website. . . .
Want to Achieve the SDGs by 2030? Center Human Rights (IISD) Over the rainbow: The role of hydrogen in a clean energy system, explained (CHN) Heat and humidity gets dangerous to health sooner than most people realise (CHN) If we want to build truly sustainable cities, we need to think about how women use energy and space (The Conversation) 5 Ways Fungi Could Change The World, From Cleaning Water to Breaking Down Plastics (greenqueen) What Is Your Digital Footprint & How Can You Minimise It? (greenqueen) 'We have reached peak greenwashing': what to do about the sustainability marketing tsunami? (Eco-business) Climate adaptation bill for African countries to dwarf health spending (The Guardian) Geographies in Transition: Mining-based development and the EU's critical raw materials strategy (Phenomenal World) . . .
Project Drawdown is a nonprofit founded in 2014 with a focus on the climate emergency and in particular providing a resource of information about possible reactions to it. The concept of “drawdown” is the point when atmospheric GHGs go into a decline in concentration. The project reviews and assesses climate solutions from around the world so that potential users/stakeholders (such as city authorities, universities, corporations, family offices, policymakers, communities, educators, activists, and more) can make better informed decisions on implementing/supporting intiatives relevant to them. They recently added 11 new ideas to the list of drawdown solutions which they highlight. See the list here: https://drawdown.org/news/insights/project-drawdown-updates-world%E2%80%99s-leading-set-of-climate-solutions%E2%80%94adding-11-new . . .
Setting up a Youth Advisory Committee was one of the most important steps for us as a Foundation. We are here to serve and empower youth and it is therefore vitally important that not only do youth have a voice in our organization but that that is demonstrably so. Having considered numerous potential applicants, we settled on a fantastic group of ten and they’re first meeting was in June 2022. At this meeting, they needed to elect a President for the year, and Kadence was the standout choice, put in place by unanimous decision. Kadence is a Y12 at Sha Tin College here in Hong Kong. She has long been passionate about various global issues in today's society, particularly youth empowerment, mental health and the intersection between health and the environment. As an SDG Advocate, she also seeks to advance the SDGs, with an emphasis on goal 4 (Quality Education), goal 13 (Climate Action) and goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). She has headed up several youth-led organisations a . . .
Methane emissions reach new highs–four times more sensitive to climate change than first thought (The Conversation) Here are the most effective things you can do to fight climate change (The Conversation) Case study: Indigenous knowledge vital in conservation of Nepal's tigers (Eco-business) The workplace of the future: smart, sustainable, holistic (Eco-business) Global dismay as supreme court ruling leaves Biden’s climate policy in tatters (The Guardian) I led the US lawsuit against big tobacco for its harmful lies. Big oil is next (The Guardian) These 10 Startups Will Change How We Grow and Eat Food (greenqueen) Food Footprint: Which Diet Creates The Least Amount Of Food Waste? (greenqueen) My people have lived in the Amazon for 6,000 years: You need to listen to us (CHN) The Arctic community that chose conservation over Big Oil (CHN) Companies need to wake up to the urgency of ending deforestation in supply chains. Here’s how (Reuters) . . .
There is a tendency in the sustainability space to focus on problem solving. But is doesn’t (arguable shouldn’t) have to be this way. Systems thinking is an increasingly well-known approach to deal with our complex environment and to fully understand how systems operate and interlink. But it can often be retro fitted. It is therefore worthwhile having an integrated thinking approach which tries to combine systems thinking with both futures and design thinking. Futures thinking in its simplest form can be a bit like strategic planning. But real futures thinking goes beyond the plausible scenarios from the present to also consider bigger “what ifs”. In doing so we become naturally more innovative and motivated and more likely to begin designing for those “impossible” futures. And if we close the loop and design in systems then perhaps we have a way to approach real sustainability. . . .
ITS Foundation founder Danny Harrington was selected on to the UN Summer Academy 2022. A group of 115 sustainability actors from 58 countries brought together by the UN Systems Staff College for an intensive week of activity. In addition to the fantastic plenary and workshop group activities and expert contributors, Danny was further nominated to deliver a “Share Talk”. In this breakout event, he was able to talk about what led to the formation of the Young Changemaker Incubator and ultimately the ITS Foundation, the needs it speaks to as well as highlighting some of the challenges it faces and the ways in which these can be overcome. Then the participant group went into a Q&A which delivered some great insights and suggestions which Danny hopes to be able to integrate back into YCI in the coming months. . . .
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