Monday 18 October 2021

‘Pandemic makes alignment between poverty and climate crisis all the more crucial’

‘Pandemic makes alignment between poverty and climate crisis all the more crucial’

Action that tackles the climate crisis and poverty must become better aligned or the world will fail to meet the Paris Agreement or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

That’s the verdict of a new report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group UN Global Goals (APPG), which warns that the pandemic has made these goals even harder to achieve – especially if urgent action is not taken.

The report was written in collaboration with professors from the University of Sussex and recommends that governments and policymakers align the climate and SDG agendas to achieve multiple goals, save resources and have further resources left over to do more.

It also stresses that national governments will be crucial to ensuring the alignment is a success and there is no negative impact on marginalised groups such as indigenous peoples.

In addition, APPG calls for existing policies to be scaled-up, programmes that replace fossil fuels with renewable energy to be accelerated and more green buildings to be constructed.

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale, Co-Chair of the APPG, commented: "The urgent action required to reduce and eliminate carbon emissions must not make our world more unequal.

“So, we need governments to combine their strategies for climate action with their targets for leaving no-one behind. Governments, businesses and communities working together in the same direction can create truly sustainable development."

“In the last few years, we have seen more and more scenes of climate-related events including flooding in my own constituency in Stafford. At the same time, around the world millions have had their lives disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing back progress on the SDGs.

“We have a very short window to urgently get back on track and align both these critical agendas if we are to create a healthy, sustainable future for generations to come, both here in the UK and around the world,” added Theo Clarke MP, Co-Chair at APPG.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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