Imagining the Carbon-Neutral Future: Transformations in Energy and Transport

Session 2 of the UN DESA Global Policy Dialogues for Climate Action

Wednesday, 28 April 2021, 8:30-10 a.m. EDT

Energy and transport can be agents of sustainable urban and rural development that prioritize equity and inclusion while also moving us closer to our zero-carbon goals. This session, the second in a four-part series on “Building a Global Coalition for Sustainability after COVID-19,” will bring together leading voices in the fields of clean energy and sustainable transport with experts from the UN system to discuss practical solutions and ways to reform these systems minimizing their effect on the environment, in the context of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organized with UN-Habitat, the event will also discuss cross-cutting issues such as financing, governance, gender, data and statistics, as well as how the world can best make systemic transformations to a more sustainable world while leaving no one behind.

Register here by 27 April 2021: bit.ly/climate28april

More information: bit.ly/DESAdialogues

The event is free and open to all, and will be streamed live on UN DESA’s Facebook page. The event will be held in English with captions available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

River Missionaries, Deforestation, and COVID-19

Rodrigo Pedroso is a Brazilian journalist who reports for CNN. As part of the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund, his project “River Missionaries: The Catholic Counteroffensive in the Amazon” explores the dynamics and work of Catholic missionaries in an area where evangelical Christians and the theology of prosperity are booming alongside deforestation.

In this conversation, Pedroso will share the stories of parishes struggling to survive and missionaries who serve hard-to-reach villages in the Amazon region. He will be joined by Niyanta Spelman, founder and CEO of Rainforest Partnership, and the two will discuss the role of religious communities in combatting deforestation, as well as how Catholic, Indigenous, and local communities in the Amazon have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The dialogue will be moderated by Rev. Fletcher Harper, executive director of GreenFaith.

This event is part of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Register here: https://georgetown.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kY_8mGHbTz6K3KNAEX3kYQ

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP.

CRNGO Climate Working Group

The regular monthly meeting of the Climate Working Group of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations will convene on Monday, April 5, at 9:00am EST.

For the first hour, members will engage in a briefing on participation at UNFCCC COP. The second hour is reserved for regular meeting business, notes and agenda available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C31WT69qDQGOfkCiBFgY6zLRNmLUsSFUJsABDJwiGrs/edit

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://bic-org.zoom.us/j/94681006298?pwd=Si9JWDlWR0FWVU1sRVdBbHNOTW5kZz09

(ID: 94681006298, passcode: P95Qhq)

Join by phone
(US) +1 646-558-8656 (passcode: 841336)
(AU) +61 7 3185 3730 (passcode: 841336)

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief, please visit unforb.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns-NY, please visit csvgc-ny.org.

Decreased Access to Safe Water in Asia: Challenges to Human Security

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) will organise a webinar on ‘Decreased Access to Safe Water in Asia: Challenges to Human Security’ in conjunction with the World Water Day–2021.

Scheduled to be held on 22 March 2021 from 12 PM to 2 PM (Bangkok time), the webinar will highlight the importance of access to water as a human right and its challenges to human security and will focus on the problems related to the right to safe and clean water and challenges to human security.

The panelists of the webinar will include representatives of UN agencies, NGOs working in the field of water, sanitation, and hygiene issues, as well as church and ecumenical organisations.

Those who are interested in participating in the webinar, kindly register using the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwrdO6qpjwpGdTg_D6dlkhiGiUzSqPJBhnp

For more details, please refer to the Background Information note here.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns-NY, please visit csvgc-ny.org.

World Water Day

World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, focuses on the importance of freshwater.

World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

View the 2021 World Water Day toolkit and explore this year’s slated events here. All are welcome to participate!

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP.

World Wildlife Day

The animals and plants that live in the wild have an intrinsic value and contribute to the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic aspects of human well-being and to sustainable development.

World Wildlife Day is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that their conservation provides to people. At the same time, the Day reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human-induced reduction of species, which have wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts. Given these various negative effects, Sustainable Development Goal 15 focuses on halting biodiversity loss.

Read more about why the UN commemorates World Wildlife Day and how to get involved here.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

ESD and Climate Emergency: Bend the curve for climate change

UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development – Pre-conference workshops

Since COVID-19 outbreak, the world’s attention has been focused on the pandemic and the coordination of the emergency response to the crisis. Meanwhile, major sustainable development challenges, including the greatest challenge of our times – climate change – remain unresolved.

Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests and farming livestock are responsible for the rise of the earth’s temperature. The only way to counter climate change is to transform our lifestyles and establish sustainable patterns of consumption and production worldwide.

Education has been recognized as a crucial element to counter climate change and is one of the priority areas of Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) because it has the power to transform the way people feel, think and behave. Education contributes to raising awareness on the physical mechanisms and the emergency of climate change and its impacts. Education empowers people to take action by promoting values, problem solving and critical thinking skills.

But, concretely, how can this happen? How can Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) contribute to urgent action for green and sustainable societies in light of the climate emergency?

This workshop will raise the parallels between the pandemic and climate emergency and discuss how the lessons learned from the public response to the Covid-19 crisis can help ‘flatten the curve of climate change,’ in particular through ESD’s contribution. This installment will also address the aforementioned question looking at examples from youth action and from formal education, and will review some recent data.

Register here: https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C482BnaSQVWNpW5f5EYIRQ

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN.

COP15 to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

The fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will review the achievement and delivery of the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. It is also anticipated that the final decision on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be taken, together with decisions on related topics including capacity building and resource mobilization.

The “zero draft” for a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework has included a focus on ensuring work to preserve biodiversity contributes to “the nutrition, food security, and livelihoods of people, especially for the most vulnerable.”

Read more and stay apprised of forthcoming planned events here and/or here.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit facebook.com/NGOCSDNY. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org.

[HLPF virtual side event] Green Economy & COVID-19 Recovery

PAGE (Partnership for Action on Green Economy) @ #HLPF2020

Green Economy & COVID-19 Recovery: Implications for the Decade of Action

Join the virtual conversation: How can a green economic recovery contribute to accelerated action on the Sustainable Development Goals?

As we enter the Decade of Action and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must unlock the opportunity to build a better tomorrow. Green recovery responses will not only address the root causes of the current crisis but also build resilience to future economic shocks and accelerate action towards the achievement of inclusive sustainable development.

Drawing on the unique expertise of the Partnership and its commitment to supporting action on green economy, this high-level panel discussion will connect how targeted policies and investments can create jobs and income while addressing global sustainability challenges. This conversation will rally around renewed commitment towards the Sustainable Development Goals and climate and biodiversity targets, highlighting the ways in which an inclusive green economic recovery can support the Decade of Action.

Register now: mailchi.mp/8928be644e7c/page-hlpf-registration

Moderation by: Nozipho Tshabalala, Conversation Strategist and Global Moderator

Distinguished Speakers:

Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany
Omar Paganini, Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Uruguay
Arifin Rudiyanto, Deputy Minister for Maritime Affairs and Natural Resources, Ministry of National Development Planning, Indonesia
Moulay Hafid Elalamy, Minister of Industry, Trade and green Digital Economy, Kingdom of Morocco
Sveinung Rotevatn, Minister of Climate and Environment, Norway, and President, United Nations Environment Assembly
Claudio Moroni, Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Argentina
Barbara Creecy, Minister of Forestry and Fisheries and Environmental Affairs of the Republic of South Africa
Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme
Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization
Li Yong, Director-General, United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Nikhil Seth, Executive Director, United Nations Institute for Training and Research

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information, on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development-NY, visit ngosonffd.org.

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