Focus 2019 Sustainable Development

Read the articles selected for the Sustainable Development Festival 2019

SDGs 14, 15

La ONU pide medidas urgentes ante el desastro medioambiental

By Manuel Planelles Esther Sánchez

Source: El País, 14 March

Air pollution, reduction in fresh water, loss in biodiversity are the major environmental problems identified in the ONU’s GEO report calling Governments for urgent and radical measures, since the progress made in the direction of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda are too slow.

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SDG 14

Climate change will raise mosquito risk

By Emily Holden

Source: The Guardian, 29 March

After a study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases the hotter temperatures risk to cause the spread of diseases transmitted by mosquitos that could kill more than a half billion people within 30 years, unless global warming is stopped.

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SDG 14

Plummeting number of insects threatens “catastrophe for planet”

By Damian Carrington

Source: The Guardian, 11 February

Insects are the most various and abundant animal species in the Planet. Intensive agriculture, urbanization and climate change are causing a mass extinction, which affects all the forms of life and threatens in a few decades even the human survival.

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SDGs 14, 15

Microplastics are blowing in the wind

By Andrea Thompson

Source: Scientific American, 15 April

Plastics is falling down like rain. A study published in Nature Geoscience reveals the discovery of polymers in microparticles in the Pyrenees, transported there by atmospheric currents coming from areas more populated and distant of the Planet.

SDGs 14, 15

Frontiers 2018/2019

Source: UN Environment

Synthetic biology is a tool which reduces the environmental impact of the industrial production and helps to fight diseases, but presents also imprevedible and irreversible risks, both environmental and geopolitical, requiring therefore good governance and a responsible use.

SDG 15

More than 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

By Caspar A. Hallmann etc.

Source: PLOS

The decline in insect biodiversity and abundance, as a result of the deterioration of habitat quality due to climate change has direct consequences on the echosystem's fundamental processes. It’s of outmost importance to know the mass of this decline for the assessment of biodiversity conservation and the echosystem’s health.

SDGs 15, 16

Enabling effective and equitable marine protected areas

Source: https://wedocs.unep.org

This guide draws from case studies about marine protected areas as example of governance for a sustainable conservation and sharing of marine resources, showing how the participation and the inclusion in the local decisional processes of the most disadvantaged groups makes a better environmental governance.

SDGs 3, 16

Tracking Universal Health Coverage

Source: WHO & World Bank

Universal health coverage is not only a human right, but also an investment in human capital, as it is shown by the intersection of the SDGs. In the lack of precise data on this point, it’s important to promote the commitment of countries to measuring their progress through key indicators.

SDG 3

Health at a Glance: Europe 2018

Source: oecd.org

This report , a result of the close collaboration with the EC, highlights the importance to point out to pay more attention to the mental health and reduce the waste of money in this sector, taking into account the increased expectation of life, corresponding the higher level of education

SDGs 3, 10

About Health 2020

Source: https://www.who.int/

The health is the first condition to realize the full potential of every person. Health 2020 is an European framework programme studied to improve the public health and reduce the inequalities in the access to healthcare.

SDGs 3, 2, 12

La dieta perfecta para salvar el planeta y la salud del ser humano

By M. Planelles & L. Delle Femmine

Source: El País, 17 January

A panel of experts by the journal Lancet has elaborated a model of healthy nutrition, good for both humans and the environment, which requires a farming revolution and a deep change in our habits, to be realized with the collaboration of all involved actors, including the consumers.

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SDGs 3, 2, 13

The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health

Source: http://asvis.it

Food has the power to condition both the human and the environmental health. Food production is the first factor responsible for environmental degradation. A plant- based nutrition with fewer animal proteins promises to be the source of welfare for all the living beings and the driver of a cultural and societal change.

SDG 1

Global Economic Prospects

Source: World Bank Group

This report outlooks the global progress of the emerging markets and developing economies, highlighting the effects of this precarious economic juncture, given by hot trade tensions, financial stress and risks, that don’t contribute to a macroeconomic stability and hence to a sustained a sustainable growth.

SDG 1

Financing Climate Futures

Source: http://www.oecd.org/

This paper, cowritten by the Oecd, the UN Environment and the World Bank highlights the need for a global trasformation, made of planning, innovation, finance, development in all the foundations of our civilisation.

SDGs 1, 3, 10, 13

Unequal exposure and unequal impacts: social vulnerability to air pollution, noise and extreme temperatures in Europe

Source: European Environment Agency

There are remarkable, both regional and social differences in the esposure to environmental risks in Europe, as well as in our ability to cope with them. More coherence between health, poverty and climate policies while focusing on vulnerable groups could bring benefits to the public health.

SDG 1

Inclusive Wealth Report

Source: UN Environment

A country’s inclusive wealth is the social value of all its capital assets, which assesses if a country’s economic growth is sustainable, beyond the 2030 end line, how the natural capital is exploited and how the wealth is shared among the population.

SDGs 1, 3

Building a tubercolosis-free world: the Lancet Commission on tubercolosis

Source: The Lancet, 20 March

The tubercolosis is the infection most mortal and widespread in the world. Given the relation between the disease, poverty and underdevelopment, it requires not only more research funding but also a global political effort toward the achievement of the SDGs, as declared at the UN High-Level Meeting on tubercolosis.

SDGs 1, 8, 10

World Employment Social Outlook

Source: ILO

This report presents the situation of the workers in the world in the articulated meaning of the SDG8 in terms, both objective and subjective, of prosperity and well-being. While the definition of work evolves in the time, it remains the concrete measure for the principles of equality, democracy, sustainability and social cohesion.

SDG 7

Emissions Gap Report

Source: UN Environment

Current national committments to comply with Paris Agreement on climate change are very far from its goal to stay under 2°C temperature increase , and though it is still possible, in fact, the global CO2 emissions show that the perspective of exceeding 1.5°C global warming is more realistic than the efforts deployed on global scale.

SDG 7

The thrillion-dollar question: how can we unlock the money needed to transition to a low-carbon economy?

By Geraldine Ang

Source: oecd.org

This crucial question is to be translated into how to attract private sources of capital in support of the transition to a low-carbon economy, since public finance alone cannot face all the infrastructure investments needed. Governments and public institutions should start mobilizing private sources of capital.

SDG 7

How to win public support for a global carbon tax

By Stefano Carattini, Steffen Kallbekken&Anton Orlov

Source: Nature, 16 January

Taxes on carbon are an effective strategy to cut greenhouse gases, but they aren’t generally well welcomed by the public opinion. Public support depends on their design. Implementing carbon-pricing gradually and a harmonized distribution of its revenues are the key of success.

SDG 7

The Clean technology Fund and Concessional Finance

Source: Bloomberg NEF

The success of the Clean Technology Fund in lowering the cost of capital of renewables has changed the economics of clean energy and strengthened the role of finance in promoting the production and consumption of zero-carbon energy.

SDG 7

Internet of Things: Energy boon or bane?

By Eric Hittinger & Paulina Jaramillo

Source: Science, 26 April

Another revolution will happen in our lives, and it will have to reckon with the consumption of energy. The Internet of Things not only will have a direct impact on the systems of energy, but will also bring to a multiplied use of devices and services..

SDG 7

New fuel cell could help fix the renewable energy storage problem

By Robert F. Service

Source: Science, 12 March

The shift to the renewables could be achieved at low cost through new cells created to store in a long term the electricity produced in excess from solar and wind energy, converting it in chemical fuel, to change it back in electricity available for the consumption.

SDG 6

How humans get in the way of clean water

By Lindzi Vessel

Source: Scientific American, 26 January

Household technology can deliver drinking water in emergencies to the poorest regions of the world. Superficiality and cultural barriers hinder things to change through the harnessing of every resource and knowledge whenever governments policies are impotent.

SDG 6

World Water Development Report 2019

Source: the United Nations

In the 2030 Agenda, nothing like the right to water and sanitation is so essential to human health and dignity and touches on the most vulnerable and discriminated people, and is therefore at the hearth of the human rights. The international law obliges States to create the conditions for an universal access to hydric services.

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Pubblicato il : 29/05/2019
Modificato il : 29/05/2019

Focus 2019 Sustainable Development

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