Hong Kong’s first blog for SDG education news and announcements
Image by: Kasun Chamara from Pixabay The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) (University of Oxford) have published a report measuring multidimensional poverty. According to them, 25 countries halved their Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in four- to twelve-year periods. This is great news which also demonstrates that halving poverty within 15 years (SDG target 1.2) is possible. In India, 415 million people exited poverty between 2005 and 2021. In China, 69 million left poverty in just four years from 2010 to 2014. Other countries which halved their multidimensional poverty rates include Cambodia, Congo, Honduras, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam. Additionally, the countries with data for 2021 to 2022 demonstrate that poverty reduction momentum “may have persisted during the pandemic,” according to a UNDP press release. However, 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people across 110 countries still live . . .
Image by: StockSnap from Pixabay Since 2011, the UN has had an Observance on 30th July each year to remind us of the truth that friendship between people (and peoples) can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. Often conflict is born from ferar and uncertainty. The more we interact with and know others, the less likely conflict is to occur and the more likely we are to share and to build an equitable approach to planetary life. The Golden Rule is much much easier to apply when we consider people friends, and many have said that the Golden Rule is in some ways the only rule humans need to achieve their aims. As the UN states: “The resolution places emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity. To mark the International Day of Friendship the UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society gr . . .
Vegan diet has just 30% of the environmental impact of a high-meat diet, major study finds (The Conversation) Net-zero hotels realistic, but industry 'too fragmented' for global pledge: Sustainable tourism council chief (Eco-Business) We can’t afford to be climate doomers (The Guardian) Scientists predict a collapse of the Atlantic ocean current to happen mid-century (ScienceDaily) Report Details Historical and Present-Day Per Capita Emissions by Country (greenqueen) Food Footprint: Which Diet Creates The Least Amount Of Food Waste? (greenqueen) G20 divisions over key climate goals pile pressure on Cop28 hosts (CHN) Climate scientist finds new way to measure the Earth's ability to offset carbon emissions (ScienceDaily) . . .
Image by: By United States Department of State John Kerry, the ex-secretary of state of the US and current US Climate Envoy made the very good point this last week of the need to get beyond politics when it comes to addressing climate change. After a couple of weeks that saw a wide range of extreme weather events around the entire northern hemisphere destroying property, business, infrastructure and taking lives, it may finally be coming home to even the hardest skeptics that climate is changing, that weather will become more extreme and that humans will suffer. That alone may take them beyond the arguments of why it is changing which has driven so much avoidance to date and get them simply solution oriented. In attempting to get the US and China to co-operate more, Kerry is addressing two countries who are responsible for 40% of all emissions globally. They also wield the most influence among many other countries. So if they can overcome their political differences to pro . . .
Image by: günter – from Pixabay There is a fascinating article in The Conversation (Understanding time may be the key to the race against climate change by Ruth Ogden) which taps into something many of us can acknowledge and see but often feel powerless to address – humans are really bad at long-term, large scale solutions to the problems needing this approach. Some are better than others of course – witness the much longer-term planning of a centralized government like China compared to those on short-term electoral cycles like the US. Ogden takes it further though to add another layer, again which many of us may be aware of but unsure how address it, which is that our perception of time varies both internally and between people. So time is a slippery customer (does it even exist or is it a human construct) which is difficult to attain consensus on regardless of how real or how regular it may be. She highlights some of the reasons for time being so . . .
Image by: svklimkin from Pixabay What El Niño means for the world’s perilous climate tipping points (The Conversation) Monsoon madness: how climate change is normalising extreme events (Eco-business) Scientists propose genetically modified trees to green wood pulp industry (Eco-business) Extreme weather: the climate crisis in four charts (The Guardian) Food Footprint: Is Eating Seafood Better for the Climate Than Meat? (greenqueen) EU to push for fossil fuel phaseout ‘well ahead of 2050’ at Cop28 (CHN) This heatwave is a climate omen. But it’s not too late to change course (The Guardian) Are short term profits damaging ESG spending? (Ascent on LinkedIn) . . .
Image by Suvajit Roy from Pixabay On 15th July is the UN Observance World Youth Skills Day. For 2023 the theme is Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future. This is one of the more recent days of observance, being declared in 2014. This reflects the UN reacting to a changing world where we see new issues coming up. For quite a while now, many post-industrial economies have been witnessing a knowledge and skills gap and labour shortages in skilled industry sectors. This is an unforeseen (??) negative by-product of the push to improve population-wide educational outcomes which saw these economies strive to increase the amount of university places available through the 1990s an onwards and which took the percentage of young people going to university from less than 10% to over 50%. As a result, those in the middle who may have looked to apprenticeships in advanced industry sectors, instead took the option for upward mobility by going this new academic . . .
Image by PrestoHaun from Pixabay A couple of news items this week got me thinking again about flying and climate. In The Guardian the question was raised whether it is possible to both expand flights capacity and achieve net zero. This is on the back of the UK airport Gatwick attempting to get permission for a new runway and all the extra flying that will therefore happen and other UK airports asking for longer operating hours and talking about greater efficiencies to get more passengers through. If mature markets like the UK feel there is more to be done with passenger numbers, what about the emerging economies which have yet to see sizeable numbers of people who can both afford to fly and decide this is how they would like to spend their new discretionary income (though of course, much of the extra capacity in places like the UK will be to receive these new flyers). The article then looks at how net zero is being addressed despite these expansion plans – carbon . . .
