Posts in category: Global goals

Cooking is an essential part of life, asides from cultural and traditional values; it meets the basic survival needs. Currently, around 4 billion people do not have access to modern energy cooking services. Instead, they cook on traditional biomass or polluting fuels.

The use of open fires and solid fuels for cooking is one of the world’s most pressing health and environmental problems, directly impacting close to half the world’s population and causing nearly 4 million premature deaths each year. Women and children are disproportionally affected by this massive global challenge, suffering from toxic smoke, time poverty, and consequences of deteriorating environments.

By developing a thriving global market for clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels, we can transform the way the world cooks, saving lives, improving livelihoods, empowering women, and protecting the environment simultaneously.

The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet the needs of present and future generations for its products and services, while ensuring profitability, environmental health and social and economic equity.

The current trajectory of growth in agricultural production is unsustainable because of its negative impacts on natural resources and the environment. One-third of farm land is degraded, up to 75% of crop genetic diversity has been lost and 22% of animal breeds are at risk. More than half of fish stocks are fully exploited and, over the past decade, about 13 million hectares of forests a year were converted into other land uses.

The transition to sustainable food and agriculture requires major improvements in the efficiency of resource use, in environmental protection and in systems resilience.

Ecolabels are marks placed on product packaging or in e-catalogues that can help consumers and institutional purchasers quickly and easily identify those products that meet specific environmental performance criteria and are therefore deemed “environmentally preferable”.

The goal of ecolabelling programs is to promote sustainable consumption patterns by encouraging consumers to choose products which are the least damaging to the environment.

Ecolabeling is one of the reliable tools for consumer-driven transition to sustainable production.

Climate justice means having a people-centered approach to climate action. This entails ensuring representation, inclusion, and protection of the rights of those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The impacts of climate change will not be borne equally or fairly, between rich and poor, women and men, and older and younger generations. Consequently, there has been a growing focus on climate justice, which looks at the climate crisis through a human rights lens and on the belief that by working together we can create a better future for present and future generations.

Solutions must promote equity, assure access to basic resources, and ensure that the rights of present and future generations to a healthy and clean environment is protected.

Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being.

Demand for water is rising owing to rapid population growth, urbanization and increasing water needs from agriculture, industry, and energy sectors. At the current rates of progress, 1.6 billion people will lack safely managed drinking water, 2.8 billion people will lack safely managed sanitation, and 1.9 billion people will lack basic hand hygiene facilities in 2030.

Sustainable management of water resources and access to safe water and sanitation are essential for unlocking economic growth and productivity, and provide significant leverage for existing investments in health and education.

Our society places great value on mobility. Well developed infrastructure and flexible, reliable systems of transport are fundamental requirements for a functioning economy. About 95 percent of today’s transport are dependent on fossil fuels. The consequences, air pollution and climate change, lead to negative impacts on the environment, health and the quality of life.

The transport sector is the fastest-growing greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting sector, expected to reach a share of more than 30% of total GHG emissions in the future. It is also a leading emitter of short-lived climate pollutants and it contributes greatly to air pollution.

Electric-powered transport has become one of the main drivers worldwide to mitigate our impact on the environment and to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Ensuring access to clean and affordable energy, is key to the development of agriculture, business, communications, education, healthcare and transportation. The lack of access to energy hinders economic and human development.

Ensuring universal access to affordable electricity by 2030 means investing in clean energy sources such as solar, wind and thermal. There is a broad range of benefits in making the transition to clean energy sources spanning across improved public health, job creation, long-term affordability, energy security, to reduced carbon footprint.

Healthy oceans and marine ecosystem services underpin the ocean economy, and provide critical support functions upon which human health and well-being depend. They cover 70 per cent of the planet and provide food, energy and water. The ocean absorbs around one quarter of the world’s annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thereby mitigating climate change and alleviating its impacts.

Ocean and marine resources are under severe pressure from human activities, notably over-exploitation of fish and other marine resources, habitat destruction, invasive alien species, pollution and climate change. Making it essential to conserve and sustainably use them.

Lubricating oil is an important resource and a petroleum base product. Mismanagement of waste lube oil is a serious environmental problem. Waste oils are considered hazardous waste and have some dangerous properties. One litre of waste oil can contaminate one million litres of water. Waste oils in rivers, lakes and streams threaten aquatic life. Also, if waste oils are left on the ground, they can severely contaminate soil.

Waste oil and its impurities pose potential threats to the environment, whether the waste oil is indiscriminately dumped on land or into water courses or burned. Disposing of used oil the wrong way has the potential to pollute the environment. And particulates produced by burning used oil can aggravate and cause respiratory problems, and can result in the loss of lung function, loss of ability to resist infection, and death. We need to recover and recycle as much of it as possible.

Almost all types of waste oil have the potential to be recycled safely, saving a precious non-renewable source and at the same time minimizing environmental pollution.

Ecotourism provides many opportunities for growth and business development as well as challenges in order to achieve the best social-economic-cultural outcome while prioritizing the welfare of ecosystems.

The practice of ecotourism enhances economic growth and improves the livelihood mainly in rural and undeveloped areas by increasing job and business opportunities. Ecotourism is largely viewed as a successful tool for promoting sustainable economic practices in developing nations, and for encouraging environmental conservation worldwide.