The thirteenth global goal is to set specific steps in order to make our society more sustainable and through that protect our environment. While reaching this goal includes overcoming numerous challenges, the global community can still achieve its goal set out until 2030. This involves drastically decreasing pollution and setting active measures to achieve a more sustainable world.
Transcript
When people think about sustainability, the first thing to come to mind is the environment, and combating climate change. All of the UN’s sustainable development goals are interrelated and do contribute to practice that will help mitigate the effects of climate change, but SDG 13 specifically focuses on: taking urgent action to combat climate change and its effects.
Among the targets, SDG 13 urges that all countries strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters. One of the realities of climate change is that weather is going to inevitably become more extreme, and we need to realistically approach the issue and take concrete measures to protect against.
At both a national and local level, there should be disaster risk reduction strategies put in place. Climate change affects every area of life, and so allowances for climate change should feature in most if not all legislation, in national policies, strategies and planning.
An important but often underrated part of fighting climate change is increasing education and awareness of climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning signs at all levels of education: primary, secondary, and tertiary. This is now a part of life, and the upcoming generation needs to be educated on the state of their world.
To reach this goal, SDG 13 comprises a few clear goals. To finance all this, the UN aims to mobilize at least one hundred billion dollars every year towards climate efforts, money that can be used to help developing countries in particular build up resilience to climate disasters.
Additionally, going to the least developed countries and promoting awareness of climate issues, and providing them with resources and direction to better address issues, taking into special consideration how climate change affects marginalised groups.
When talking about the state of the planet, there is a “before Covid-19,” and a “during Covid-19” distinction. Before Covid, 2019 was the second warmest year on record coming at the end of the warmest decade on record, with average temperatures 1.1 degrees celsius above pre-industrial averages, fast approaching the threshold set by the UN at a 1.5 degree increase overall.
Globally, most countries have increased efforts around climate action since the early 2000s, and the amount of money mobilised increased by around 20%, reaching six hundred and eighty billion dollars in the 2015 fiscal year. However, there is still considerably more money going to non-green industries, with $780 billion dollars going to fossil fuel alone.
During the pandemic, greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by a projected 6%, but that is mainly because of widespread travel bans and economic downturns, and will most likely only be temporary.
If anything, the pandemic has shown us that what we were doing before was simply not enough, and if we want our after covid to continue to improve, we all need to make serious changes in our lives, in industry, everywhere to even begin to fight climate change.