Mother Earth’s Blog – Page 4

Dear Mankind and most favoured of my children

You will recall my earliest blogs ( mother Earth blogs ) welcomed the Global initiative to develop the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) to help create a safer and fairer world and I was happy that mankind had at last understood the need to live more sustainably and harmoniously with other living things on this, our only, home. Some good progress was starting to be being made in some areas but sadly most of this encouraging activity was brought to an abrupt halt or in some cases, even reversed by the COVID 19 Pandemic.

This blog on SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and Production is the next in a series of updates to review the effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic on the aspirations and targets of each of the original 17 SDGS and to look ahead to the prospects in each sector.

Growing global population combined with unsustainable use of natural resources is having a devastating impact on the Planet and propelling climate change, destroying nature and raising pollution levels. Around 14% of the world’s food is lost along supply lines chains before reaching the retail level. One million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute and 5 trillion single use plastic bags are thrown away each year . Each person generates 7.3kg of e waste but only 1.7kg of it ever gets recycled . As a result of such activities the global material footprint increased by 70% between 2000 and 2007.

Globally, domestic material consumption per capita (the total amount of material directly used by any country) rose by more than 40% from 2000 to 2007. Whereas the rise in industrialised countries was due largely to increased consumption, the rise in developing countries was mostly due to industrialisation. There is some evidence of a positive trend in development of activities and strategies. By 2020, the richest countries and the European union reported a total of 700 policies and implementation activities under the framework of programs for sustainable consumption and production. However, only 50 policies and implementation activities were reported in sub-Saharan Africa compared with the 374 in Europe and North America so more support needs to be given to the developing world. The Covid recovery strategy provides a window of opportunity to design and build sustainable and reliable economies and societies in all countries around the world.

The disposal of e-waste causing poisonous chemicals to be released into the soil and water remains a major problem and also results in significant loss of scarce and valuable raw materials such as gold, platinum ,cobalt and rare earth elements. E waste quantity is expected to grow annually but the processing capacity to recycle e waste is not increasing at the same rate. This is most unfortunate, because as much as 7% of the global gold might be contained in e-waste which we throw away.

Fossil fuel subsidies were expected to decline but despite a very small reduction ( mainly due to covid effects) they still amounted to $432 million in 2020

Mother Earth

Sources : The Sustainable Development Goals Reports 2019 -2021 , United nations, New York

Dear Mankind and most favoured of my children

This blog on SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities is the next in a series of updates to review the effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic on the aspirations and targets of each of the original 17 SDGS and to look ahead to the prospects in each sector.

The Pandemic dramatically exposed the many longstanding inequalities and problems in society and in our urban areas. Lack of adequate housing, poor public health systems, inadequate infrastructure ( roads , water and sewage ) inadequate open public spaces and poor public transport all combined to maximise impact on the most vulnerable and poorest in society such as the homeless , migrants and those living in urban slums..

In the past, insufficient thought or provision was given to the needs of the disadvantaged in urban areas but the Pandemic has starkly demonstrated the inadequacies that have to be improved. Research in 610 cities in 95 countries shows that only about 50% of the world urban population lives within 500 m walking distance of low -capacity transit systems ( buses or trams ) and 1000m walking distance of high- capacity transit systems ( ferry or train ). Commuting to work was severely disrupted during the pandemic. City centre offices closed , roads were empty, congested public transport was to be avoided and many now prefer to work at least part of the time from home. With reduced demand for city centre offices , parking spaces etc many councils have taken the opportunity to reduce parking spaces and to apply partial or full street closures to free up space for walking and cycling

This re-imagining of cities is one of the few positive outcomes from the Pandemic. Civic leaders are recognising the importance of and the need for public open spaces , streets and recreational areas and the need to create more facilities for more sustainable transport modes such as walking and cycling. There is also greater awareness for the need to re shape the city centres to re purpose central business districts to be mixed developments that do not rely on or need congested public transport systems. Research in 2020 in 911 cities in 114 countries indicates that the share of global urban area allocated to streets and open public space is only 16%. This needs to be at least 30% for streets and another 10-15% for open public spaces according to UN Habitat if we are to create more liveable cities that reduce risk and improve health and well -being of city residents.

Between 2014 and 2018 the urban population living in slums worldwide increased from 23% to 24% resulting in 1billion slum dwellers and this will continue to increase in future years to reach 2billion urban slum dwellers by 2030. Their needs must be taken into account

Mother Earth
Sources : The Sustainable Development Goals Reports 2019 -2021 , United nations, New York

SDG 12 Responsible consumption and Production – An Update

SDG 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities – An Update