Hong Kong’s first blog for SDG education news and announcements
Debates around sustainability initiatives can often become quite binary. But the world isn’t like that and we need to recognize the complexity of the problems we face. I was reading recently about the problems still facing hydrogen as a fuel of the future. The potential for hydrogen is huge as a clean, efficient and “ubiquitous” energy source. Most debate focuses on the quality of the fuel production methods and how well we have progressed in that area. But while the potential for hydrogen fuel production is spread across space much better than fossil fuels, it will always still be to a certain extent location dependent as the production facilities take considerable investment (unless we hit a utopian future where perhaps a house could produce its own hydrogen fuel). So this creates a new set of problems around moving hydrogen fuel from producer to consumer as hydrogen is difficult to contain without leakage, causes embrittlement of metal casings, can be technically . . .
Hydrogen uses to be determined by delivery methods available (reuters) Fate of ‘sleeping giant’ East Antarctic ice sheet ‘in our hands’ – study (The Guardian) Driving out invasive species on islands has high success rate and big benefits (The Guardian) Five easy ways to use less water at home – and not just in a drought (The Conversation) 58% of human infectious diseases can be worsened by climate change (The Conversation) Borderless haze threatens Southeast Asia (Eco-business) Slow take off: the flight path to net-zero air travel in Southeast Asia (Eco-business) Divisions deepen over rush to finalise deep sea mining rules (CHN) The War On Plastic: Are We Missing The Bigger Picture? (green queen) . . .
The UN General Assembly’s high-level thematic debate titled “Moment for Nature” took place in New York on 19 July. Convening the heads of major UN agencies involved with the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, land and ocean degradation, pollution, and unsustainable consumption and production, it allowed for messaging particularly around moving to fill the gap between intention and action – an idea being pushed now as more acceptance and evidence sways ever larger numbers of people to realize the need to change behaviours at all levels. A very good summary of the key components and points made can be found in a longer article on IISD. . . .
The UN Environment programme has linked up with the UN Systems Staff College to gamify a swathe of sustainable living content that has been developed and taught by them over the last couple of years. They have selected a number of graduates from their programmes to be the first cohort and help deliver a first practice and feedback of the game. It is a challenge over 6 weeks and began on 18th July. ITS Foundation founder Danny Harrington has been selected to take part and is getting into it. The great thing is it forces you to go back and revisit ideas in greater depth, research them for your local community/environment and then begin to take action towards improving on areas where you can. Solutions to sustainability programmes will always need to be multi-faceted and a combination of top-down (e.g. government regulations and corporates offering choice) as well as bottom-up (the work of civil societies and the way we live our lives as individuals). . . .
Magic Numbers? Why the Politics of Indices Are a Problem Rather Than a Solution (IISD) China’s ambitious rooftop solar pilot helps drive ‘blistering’ capacity growth (CHN) UN body makes ‘breakthrough’ on carbon price proposal for shipping (CHN) Four things cool countries can learn from hot ones about dealing with heatwaves (The Conversation) In defence of ants (The Conversation) Meet 4 Startups Behind The Refillable Grocery Revolution (greenqueen) How can data centres go greener? (Eco-business) The workplace of the future: smart, sustainable, holistic (Eco-business) Old cars forced off road as Europe’s clean air zones nearly double (The Guardian) . . .
Nuclear power has had a troubled history in more ways than one. The more recent question revolves around whether we should class it as renewable or non-renewable, safe or dangerous, clean or dirty, polluting or non-polluting. Even the iea seems to be hedging it’s language, saying it “makes no recommendations to countries that choose not to include nuclear power in their energy mix” but concludes that “building sustainable and clean energy systems will be harder, riskier and more expensive without nuclear” as they release a 2022 Fuel Report. Here in Hong Kong, a certain amount of the territory’s electricity supply comes from the Daya Bay plant in mainland China. One of the HK power companies holds a stake in the plant. Certainly nuclear means lower carbon emissions and is safe from global price volatility which oil is most certainly not. On the other hands are the questions of power station construction, the centralized production model, wast . . .
On this Nelson Mandela International Day, it seems appropriate to highlight an initiative from the African continent. “Plastiki Rafiki” was a project started by the Construction by Design (CBD) service club at the International School of Kenya. As a youth-led, non-profit sustainability initiative, this is very much the kind of thing the ITS Foundation supports and celebrates. Essentially, the initiative sees a range of groups sourcing plastic waste in their areas, upcycling the waste into new products and selling them on a self-funding, cost recovery basis. They explain it all best on their website. . . .
Want to Achieve the SDGs by 2030? Center Human Rights (IISD) Over the rainbow: The role of hydrogen in a clean energy system, explained (CHN) Heat and humidity gets dangerous to health sooner than most people realise (CHN) If we want to build truly sustainable cities, we need to think about how women use energy and space (The Conversation) 5 Ways Fungi Could Change The World, From Cleaning Water to Breaking Down Plastics (greenqueen) What Is Your Digital Footprint & How Can You Minimise It? (greenqueen) 'We have reached peak greenwashing': what to do about the sustainability marketing tsunami? (Eco-business) Climate adaptation bill for African countries to dwarf health spending (The Guardian) Geographies in Transition: Mining-based development and the EU's critical raw materials strategy (Phenomenal World) . . .
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