Care, Share and Inspire – Climate Wisdom from COP28 on December 5 2023
Before engaging the panel experts in the climate wisdom studio, Golo Pilz – Adviser Renewable Energy, Brahma Kumaris, highlighted a recent study by the world economic forum that the transition to clean technology and net zero emissions could benefit the world economy with a staggering amount of $43 Trillion.
The panel of experts for this episode were Sister Jayanti – Add. Admin. Head of the Brahma Kumaris; Alan Bigelow – PhD, Program and Science Director, Solar Cookers and Apoorva Bose – Programme Coordinator, G20 Global Initiative on Land, UN Convention for Combating Desertification.
Alan believes that awareness levels on climate change have gone up thanks to COP, besides people are having a higher sense of urgency to do something and there is ‘political will’ more than ever before.
Reforestation, Alan said, is one of our focal areas; 1/3rd of the population is cooking in open fires thereby cutting of trees and damaging forests. SCI has 3 buckets of strategy.
- Research
- Strengthening capacity
- Advocacy
He shared some success stories on local manufacturing. In Kenya, for example, once a year, cookers are being built by Kenyans, using materials available in Kenya. These solar cookers are then brought to a barren yet sunny refugee camp in Northern Kenya where 200,000 people are living, giving them great solar cooking opportunities. Additionally, they are being trained on solar cooking by women refugees who had learnt solar cooking the previous year, which builds trust and saves them money.
Apoorva felt that there was information overload in the COPs since we have so many stakeholders. “There are some amazing conversations going on in different pavilions, but they happen in silos. A clear vision with shared objectives would be useful,” she said.
A huge ambition of the G20 Global Land initiative is to reduce degraded land to 50 percent by 2040. Our focus, Apoorva said, is also to protect the precious ecosystems of the earth by showcasing success stories from around the world by engaging with governments, private sectors, youth, women, farmers, and faith groups. In our capacity building initiative, we train people on ecological restoration too.
Apoorva’s hope comes from inspiring stories of the youth, such as the magic socks movement (seed-ball-method) invented by Bodhisatva Khanderao and the young person who collected 800kgs of plastic from the beach in Chennai, India.
Sister Jayanti explored the reason for suffering in this world. “If I had negative thoughts such as anger, greed or ego, I suffer first, both mentally and physically; and when I extend that into the world, I can see how it plays out. The root cause of all suffering of human beings is the incorrect awareness that I am this physical form and as soon as I come to the true awareness of my spiritual identity, I experience peace, love, and truth within and that is what I share to the world outside,”
A peaceful guided commentary summarized the session beautifully.
