G L O B A L B R I E F I N G R E P O RT R E V I E W S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y B R A N D E D S T O RY
Tomorrow is decided by us today Worldwide, there is plenty of awareness that more sustainability is urgently necessary. The focus now must be on implementation The fight against climate change dominates headlines around the world – and rightly so. Young people are more politically active now than they have been in a long time. The issue has been on the global agenda since long before “Fridays for Future” – but it has become dramatically more urgent. Not least of all, this is because climate change is no longer abstract. Each one of us is feeling the impact of “business as usual” more and more directly every day. Melting glaciers no longer leave any hiker cold. Floods and burning forests are raising more and more fears in our part of the world as well. The impact of climate change is no longer something we hear about only in news reports about faraway countries. The impact is visible on our doorstep every day. Now it is clear to everyone that much more needs to be done – and should have been done long ago.
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Sustainability has arrived in global politics Despite all this, it was not until 2015 that the international community was able to agree on binding targets and deadlines in the Paris Agreement on climate change. Since then, terms such as climate neutrality, decarbonisation, and net zero have dominated the public discourse. The year 2015 was important not only for the fight against climate change, however, but also for more sustainable development as a whole. That year, the United Nations succeeded in adopting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs set out a binding, comprehensive, and global sustainability concept. They aim to shape our world by 2030 in such a way that all people will have the same opportunities for a healthy and peaceful life in freedom and security.
So it makes sense to claim that 2015 was the year when sustainability finally arrived in global politics. Certainly, both the Paris Agreement and the SDGs have their weaknesses. Not all countries have signed the agreements or have committed to implementing the same ambitious targets. But this should no longer serve as an excuse. Pandemic as a warning and accelerator The current global pandemic in particular has impressively shown that a comprehensive approach in line with the SDGs is correct and that the social aspects must not be forgotten in the context of the urgent environmental challenges. For example, as human habitats expand, there is more contact between wildlife and humans, making it easier for viruses to spread. The World Bank estimates that up to
