SDG Update – 29 November 2019

LaRae LongGlobal Citizen, Earth Systems Science, Beyond GDP, Transforming Finance, Latest Headlines

“As we look to COP 25 starting in Madrid, December 2nd, Ethical Markets continues our focus on decarbonizing the global economy even more rapidly than the commitments made in Paris in 2015.  We must now accelerate phasing out perverse subsidies to fossilized sectors and shift toward the many Green New Deal proposals in Europe and the USA. This means Transforming Finance, as in our 2010 Statement .

We must move toward science-based investing, away from its still dominant anthropocentric, naval-gazing and obsolete economic textbook metrics still lurking in its indexes, algorithms and ETFs. We recommend Carbon Tracker’s new report “Balancing the Budget”, the mandated climate reporting of TFCD and the advice of 2 degree-investing at www.2degrees-investing.org.

As our Green Transition Scoreboard Annual Reports since 2009 clearly show, all the necessary technologies are available and as we see in solar, wind, electricity storage, ambient CO2 capture using all nature’s available means, as well as shifting to plant-based foods and beverages, are all proceeding, scaling up with increasing efficiency and lower costs.

We support all the responsible, global movements demanding these vital, socially-just transitions to Solar Age, inclusive circular economies be accelerated as demanded by the latest scientific IPCC report.  We also support fully the recent report of Germany’s Advisory Council on Global Change “Towards Our Common Digital Future“  and the groundbreaking  critique of the dangers in the internet and current social media monopolies by Prof. Shoshana Zuboff in  “The Age of Surveillance Capital” (2019), as referenced in my “Markets Growing Problem Twins: Advertising and Trading“.

As the report from Germany also emphasizes, we must now integrate our joint concerns for our global common future, as expressed in our support for the United Nations and the SDGs, with reforming the current takeovers by both state surveillance and that of profit-oriented social media monopolies of our common resources: the global internet and cyberspace: see “The Future of Democracy Challenged in the Digital Age”.

~Hazel Henderson, Editor“

Guest Articles

Why Infrastructure is Central to Achieving a More Resource-efficient Future

Integrated, systems-level approaches can help to increase the resource efficiency of infrastructure. Read

Greening the Wood Industry: Sustainability from Production to Consumption

Sustainable wood trade can help to fight deforestation and climate change while improving livelihoods. Read

Catalyzing Change for Gender Equality

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference for the Beijing+25 Review will meet this week. Read

Policy Brief

COP 25: Bending the “Keeling Curve”

Chair of the UNFCCC SBSTA, Paul Watkinson, cautions, “Until we stabilize concentrations, we cannot limit future temperature increases, and impacts will be harder and harder to deal with.” Read

News

1.5°C “Almost Impossible” Without Deeper and Faster Cuts, Warns UNEP Emissions Gap Report

The report identifies two critical entry points for accelerating emissions reduction: decarbonization of the energy sector and electrification of transport. Read

Economies of Central Asia Establish Initiative to Increase Connectivity, Sustainable Development

The countries adopted the ‘Ashgabat Initiative on the reduction on barriers to trade and transport in the region.’ Read

Expert Group Makes Progress on Actions for Stocktaking on Marine Plastic Litter

The Group made progress on options and recommendations for the long-term elimination of plastic discharges into the oceans and to reduce marine plastic litter and microplastics. Read

SDG Knowledge Hub-Browser