Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice-Chancellor,
Dr Tracy Morse, Head of Centre for Sustainable Development,
Centre Co-Directors, Professor Andrew Goudie & Professor Anja Lowit,
Ru Wallace, Vice President (Community), Strathclyde Students Union,
Strathclyde University Students,
All participants present,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I would like to say a warm thank you to the University for inviting me to speak at the launch of the Centre for Sustainable Development.
To speak with you today is a double honour for me. Not only have I dedicated my life to sustainable development, but it was my time as a student at Strathclyde University that equipped me with the skills and knowledge that have allowed me to do so.
To celebrate the opening of an institute with such a profound mission and to do so as a former student is a tremendous honour. I sort of have to pinch myself.
In many ways, it feels like yesterday that I embarked on my Scottish journey. I remember vividly the airplane ride – the first time I had set foot outside my home in Tanzania. And I remember landing in Glasgow where I was about to start my studies at Strathclyde University. My time at the university would deeply affect me.
In my three years there, Strathclyde became:
My door to the world,
A catalyst for my curiosity of humanity, science and the planet,
And an incubator of long-term friendships.
It also led to a deep appreciation of men in kilts, whiskey and Haggis.
Seriously though, the university fed my curiosity of the world, giving me the insights and knowledge that shaped my ambition to build a career in the international civil service.
After graduating in 1992, I studied microbiology and immunology in Canada before joining the World Bank in Washington DC. I have worked in the field of sustainable development ever since. And I have the university to thank for much of this.
The vision of the university’s founder, Professor John Anderson – that the university be a place of “useful learning” – was very much alive during my student days. And today, as we open a trailblazing centre that will address some of the most pressing issues of our time, it is clear that this vision lives on.
The sustainable development goals represent the highest ideals that humanity has set itself. To see the university not only commit to them but to actively participate in their fulfilment makes me immensely proud to be associated with this seat of learning.
I would like to zero in for a moment on the phrase “sustainable development”. It is a phrase we hear more and more about. And yet it is easy to lose sight of what it really means.
The term was coined a few years before I left home for Glasgow, in a report issued by The World Commission on Environment and Development. The authors defined sustainable development as:
“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
The heart of this idea is perhaps most beautifully and succinctly summed up in a favourite quote of mine:
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”.
That this quote is attributed to the Masaai people in Kenya and Tanzania, indigenous peoples in America and a series of famous environmentalists shows how deeply this interpretation of sustainability resonates across cultures.
And so, the world of sustainable development is very much about the business of ensuring that our children and future generations inherit an earth that is – at the bare minimum – no worse off than the one we inherited.
It is perhaps one of the noblest and highest aspirations that we can set ourselves as humans. And I believe it should guide everything we do as a species.
It is why the sustainable development goals, or SDGs, are so important to me. These targets, adopted by UN member states five years ago, provide humanity with a roadmap for a better future.
Taken together, they offer a bold and beautiful vision of our shared future – a future in which hundreds of millions of people no longer go to bed hungry every day, where poverty no longer harms one in ten people, and where quality education and lifelong learning opportunities are available to all.
The heartbreaking reality is that we are failing to follow this roadmap. In other words, we are failing to implement this vision of a better world.
By the end of 2019, the world’s efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, were already off track.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, triggering an unprecedented global crisis that is severely restricting our ability to meet many of the goals.
The crisis – like most emergencies – is hitting the world’s poorest and most marginalized the hardest. More than 70 million people are expected to sink back into extreme poverty in 2020 – the first rise in global poverty since 1998.
School closures have kept 90% of students worldwide out of school. The pressure on families is intense. Jobs are being lost and incomes cut. Domestic violence against women and children is surging as a result.
The disruption to health and vaccination services and the limited access to food have the potential to cause hundreds of thousands of additional deaths among children under the age of five.
Like I say, we were already struggling to meet the SDGs before the pandemic struck.
Climate change and the collapse of the living world are happening much faster than expected. The consequences are being felt around the world. This year, wildfires in America, Australia, Europe and Siberia have broken records for their ferocity. In recent months, flooding in South Asia has forced more than 25 million people to abandon their homes.
And we know that the worse is still to come. More floods, more drought, more extreme weather. And we know what this means. More hunger, more poverty, more conflict.
And just as we are failing to meet the SDGs, we are also failing to hit the climate and biodiversity targets that we have set ourselves.
Five years ago, the world’s nations met in Paris and vowed to keep the rise in global temperatures to well below 2°C. But the pledges they made remain woefully inadequate. And even if these pledges are met, the world will still warm by more than 3°C.
A temperature rise of this magnitude would condemn hundreds of millions – perhaps billions – more people to suffering.
And this year marks another sad milestone in the battle to halt the destruction of the natural world. We have just learnt that we have failed to meet a single one of the 20 biodiversity targets that the world set itself a decade ago.
Land degradation and habitat destruction continue at a rapid pace, driven by unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. About one million species are at risk of extinction, some within decades. We are rapidly destroying our only life-support system.
The troubling indicators I have mentioned, and others like it, threaten to undermine the strongly held belief that humanity is progressing.
Certainly, before the COVID crisis, our economies were growing. And some of the key indicators by which we measure human progress were also improving – maternal and child health, access to electricity, the representation of women in government, to name just a few.
But if the very bedrock of existence, the very foundation of life, is being destroyed at the same time, then what does this say about the progress we are making?
For me, this cuts to the very heart of what we mean when we talk about sustainable development. It is also the reason why the environment is directly connected to more than half of all the SDGs.
The natural world underpins so many of the key indicators by which we measure human well-being. For me, it is simple. If we want human well-being to improve, then we must begin to see the environment for what it is – one of the cornerstones of sustainable development.
This is why the United Nations is urgently calling on governments to put the environment at the heart of their COVID recovery plans. The tragedy triggered by the pandemic presents the world with an incredible opportunity to build back better.
Whether governments can seize this moment remains to be seen. I am worried. Green measures currently account for less than 0.2% of the total COVID-related stimulus spending that is being allocated by the world’s 50 largest economies.
It is clear that much more needs to be done before policymakers, business leaders and members of the public understand the need to prioritize sustainable development. And this is where education and science play such a vital role as catalysts for action.
Academic institutions must double their efforts to ensure that the world’s policymakers and leaders are provided with the information they need to solve the world’s increasingly complex development problems.
To achieve this, it is crucial that universities, policymakers and donors increase support for academic research that is guided by the 2030 Agenda. Current research priorities will also need to be shifted to support innovative approaches in sustainability science, specifically ones that emphasize cross-disciplinary partnerships. And more resources must be committed to supporting scientific institutions, particularly in the global South.
Academic institutions also have a tremendous responsibility to create a generation of policymakers, scientists and innovators who understand the importance of placing sustainable development at the heart of its work. Ensuring this happens requires universities and schools to embed the concept of sustainable development throughout their curricula.
It is also a case of leading by example. University campuses must continue their drive towards decarbonization and divestment, inspiring their students to engage with the climate crisis and issues of sustainability.
Behavioural science shows that a simple “nudge” towards every day, greener decisions is a powerful spur to environmental action for students and staff. Techniques such as gentle persuasion, how we frame our choices, resetting “default” options and social influence can all lead towards sustainable behaviour.
To this end, UNEP launched “The Little Book of Green Nudges” at the Virtual World Academic Summit on 1 September 2020. I’m delighted that the University of Strathclyde has already signed up as a pilot campus.
That education plays a major role in ensuring we meet the SDGs is not news to any of you. The university has already done so much to enhance the pursuit of sustainable development. It has signed the SDG Accord, a commitment from institutes of learning to deliver the sustainable development goals by embedding them into their education, research and leadership programs.
And the university has already committed to declaring a climate Emergency, recognizing the urgent need for a drastic societal shift to combat the growing threat of climate change. It has also gone a step further by setting a carbon neutrality date of 2040, making it a beacon of hope and inspiration for others. It is clear that the university understands the planetary crisis in which we find ourselves.
By establishing the Centre for Sustainable Development the university is underlining its commitment to many of the highest ideals humankind is capable of. It is proof of the university’s vision and it could not come at a better time given the scale, urgency and complexity of the interconnected crises that we face today.
I want to commend and thank the university and all the staff who made this happen for displaying the courage and vision to confront some of the most pressing issues that we as a species have ever faced.
We stand at the beginning of a new decade. This must be the decade that we finally deliver on the promises of sustainable development.
At the UN we are mobilizing all sectors of society for a decade of action on the SDGs. This will require:
Global action to secure greater leadership, more resources and smarter solutions;
Local action from governments and local authorities to embed sustainable development in everything they do;
and People action to ensure that civil society, academia, the media and the private sector generate an unstoppable movement that can push for the transformations we so urgently need.
These transformations will require changes to all aspects of society at a scale and speed that is unprecedented in human history.
Whenever I am daunted by the enormity of the work that lies ahead of all of us, I recall a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
As an individual, I find those words deeply inspiring; that my actions, in concert with others, have the power to transform the world.
And then I look at the efforts of this university and it fills me with enormous hope for the future. You are doing more than just a little bit of good.
May the example you are setting here today ensure that other academic institutions follow your lead. May the work you do in the years to come enlighten our decision-making and, in doing so, ensure that the earth we have borrowed from our children is returned in good condition. Let the good we do together overwhelm the world.
Deputy Executive Director
