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SDGs for All

SDGs for All is a joint media project of the global news organization International Press Syndicate (INPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI). It aims to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets. It offers in-depth news and analyses of local, national, regional and global action for people, planet and prosperity. This project website is also a reference point for discussions, decisions and substantive actions related to 17 goals and 169 targets to move the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.

Photo: In a desert area located on the west coast of Australia. The lake looks pink because of Dunaliella. Credit: Midori Kurahashi.

Viewpoint by Midori Kurahashi

The author is Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Japan.

TOKYO (IDN) – Worldwide forest fires and the abnormal heat experienced last summer are still fresh in our memory. Many people throughout the world had a sense that some kind of unsettling change is happening. Even so, response is slow and measures are not being taken. One reason for this is that the world is driven by people who believe that the cost of stopping global warming is too great for the achieved effect. (P21) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH

Project Articles

Photo: Lesedi solar power plant panels. Credit: MyBroadBand

By Jeffrey Moyo

LUSAKA (IDN) – Letina Phiri waits at a bus terminus in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, as loaders carry her baggage of huge solar panels to pack on the bus.

“I will sell some of the panels as soon as I get home. Where I live, not far from Kabwe town, many people in rural communities there have started electrifying their homes with solar and I want to do the same,” 51-year-old Phiri told IDN.

Even in Zimbabwe, solar energy has started to gain ground in remote areas like Seke in the country’s Mashonaland East Province.

Goal 7

Photo: The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant in Þingvellir, Iceland. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – 439 million Asians and 588 million sub-Saharan Africans lack access to electricity, according to the International Energy Authority’s Energy Access Outlook. The situation is worse for those living in rural areas: although 98 percent of urban Filipinos have access to electricity, this is only true for 84 percent of rural dwellers.

Aware of what millions have to forego and such wide gaps between the urban and rural populations, the Geothermal Training Programme of the United Nations University (UNU-GTP), the Government of Iceland and the National Energy Authority are assisting developing countries in capacity building for geothermal exploration and development.

Goal 5

Photo: Martin Krause, Director of the Division of Programme Support and Coordination, IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation, attends the UN event on sustainable development in New York. Credit: D. Shropshire/IAEA.

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – At the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, concluding on July 18 in New York, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has highlighted its contributions to promoting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Capacity building to 'ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all' as envisaged by SDG 7 was the focus of a training course organized by the IAEA, the world's central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the nuclear field.

Goal 6

Photo credit: Energy 4 Impact

By Joshua Masinde

NAIROBI (IDN) – Productive use of energy holds the key to livelihood transformation in Africa’s rural areas. Small industries could improve their production processes and efficiency if they had better access to electricity and technologies.

Without electricity, rural micro-enterprises make do with labour intensive and time-consuming manual tools, and often pass up many opportunities for value addition or product diversification.

Satisfying the need for power of commercial enterprises presents an opportunity for private sector players such as JUMEME, a Tanzanian company that develops solar-powered mini-grids to connect businesses and households in remote areas. (P04)  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI

Goal 7

Photo: Launch of new publication providing tools for achieving sustainable energy for all. Credit: UN DESA

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – About one billion people around the world live without electricity. Close to three billion lack access to clean cooking solutions and are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution, which results in millions of deaths each year, mostly among women and children.

Against this disquieting backdrop, a new publication supported by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has called for urgent action. Without such action, the world will fall short of its 2030 energy targets and, consequently, fail to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Goal 7

Image: The Birth Control Necklace consists of 30 drop-shaped beads (average length of a woman's monthly cycle), whereby each bead represents one day in a woman's monthly menstrual cycle. Credit: Aktion Regen

By Julia Zimmerman*

This is the fifth in a series of reports on the Vienna UN Conference from January 10-12, 2018, which discussed actions and challenges linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and in the spirit of SDG 17. The Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) organized this Conference co-ordinated by Heather Wokusch. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Of the numerous and significant challenges currently facing women and girls globally, access to sexual and reproductive rights is high on the list. Experts in the field of women’s sexual and reproductive health are trying to assure access and to spread knowledge about harmful practices.

Goal 3

Image: RES4Africa promotes the deployment of large-scale and decentralized renewable energy solutions in Sub-Saharan African markets to meet local energy needs for growth. Credit: RES4Africa.

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (IDN) – Heightened demand for energy, a shift in policy and the emergence of viable entrepreneurial innovations are propelling transition to sustainable energy in the East African region.

This emerged during a two-day conference organised by Kenya’s Strathmore University‘s Energy Research Centre (SERC) in partnership with Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa (RES4Africa) – an association that promotes the deployment of large-scale and decentralised renewable energy in sub-Saharan African countries. The meeting was held on in Nairobi.

Goal 7

Image credit: Solar Impulse Foundation

By John Scales Avery*

John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist noted for his research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. Presently an Associate Professor in quantum chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, he is working on a book with the title 'THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY: Two time scales'. A first draft of the book can be downloaded from: http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/climate.pdf. The following are excerpts from introduction to the book. – The Editor

COPENHAGEN (IDN) - Quick change is needed to save the long-term future. The central problem, which the world faces in its attempts to avoid catastrophic climate change, is a contrast of time scales. In order to save human civilization and the biosphere from the most catastrophic effects of climate change, we need to act immediately. Fossil fuels must be left in the ground. Forests must be saved from destruction by beef or palm oil production.

Goal 7

Photo: Iceberg in North Star Bay, Greenland. Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory

By Jaya Ramachandran

BONN (IDN) – Scientists are warning of a profound impact on human health and migration, leading to civil unrest and conflict. In a new statement to national representatives meeting in Bonn for the annual climate talks widely known as COP23, scientists said that Earth is approaching tipping points that threaten human security.

The warning that Planet Earth is coming close to a critical situation – when a series of small climate changes would become significant enough to cause havoc – comes as global emissions are projected to rise after three stable years.

COP23 is an abbreviation for the 23rd session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the former West German capital city Bonn, from November 6 to 17.

Goal 7

  1. Southern Africa Turns to the Sun as Energy Woes Bite
  2. Clean Energy Coming to Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp
  3. Morocco Hosts the World’s largest Solar Plant
  4. Art Exhibition Highlights Regional Bank’s Commitment to ‘Lighting Africa’

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