Dear distinguished delegates,
I am here today to speak on behalf of UNECE RCEM, Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism. I am Jeff Moxom from EEB.
We need a real comprehensive global strategy on the SDGs which can go beyond an “SDG by SDG” approach. We also need the structured and meaningful engagement of civil society.
We thank you for listening and for taking the vital input of civil society on board.
Despite the mixed progress outlined by the 2023 UNECE report on sustainable and clean industries (9.4) there are worrying regressions in the data as the climate and biodiversity crises worsens.
Infrastructure and industry in the region has been heavily impacted by Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and by environmental disasters, which occur with increasing frequency. We support green reconstruction efforts by countries to rebuild with long term sustainability in mind.
We should urgently embark on transformative changes towards a circular, decarbonised and zero pollution industry. Citizens and the least fortunate must not be forced to pay the price of industrial polluters, the polluter pays principle must be upheld.
Infrastructure must not lock our economies into expensive technologies that contradict our SDG commitments. We have heard from cement, transport and construction industries, where there is still great progress to be made. We have mentioned power generation, and we need to look at this holistically and spot the interlinkages in conjunction with our energy system.
Let’s take some examples from the European Union, a key focus of SDG Watch Europe the civil society coalition that I work with. Billions of euros that have been put aside for Europe’s post-Covid recovery could now be diverted into a raft of new fossil fuel infrastructure projects. These deals may lock Europe and its citizens into contracts for the next 20 years and risk undermining its green transition efforts, not mentioning the local impacts on people and planet.
By amending the RRF regulation, the EU’s post covid plan, the EU has agreed to temporarily set aside the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ principle that ensures funded projects cause no environmental damage. In doing so, dozens of fossil fuel infrastructure projects proposed across Europe are now eligible for money originally set aside for post-Covid recovery initiatives. Is that what we had in mind when we said we needed to build back better?
Journalists and NGOs have identified 41 liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal or gas pipeline developments, 26 offshore or floating bases (FSRU and FSU) and eight onshore terminal projects – most of which could now partly be funded with the diverted Covid money.
That is a disaster for our climate commitments. On top of the lengthy contracts of 15 or 20 years Europe will have built thousands of kilometres of pipeline, potentially partly funded with Repower EU money, exactly at the time we need to be phasing out fossil fuels and financing renewables.
We echo the civil society who have spoken out loudly against the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the EU’s taxonomy for sustainable finance. Fossil gas and nuclear should not have access to the same cheap financing as renewables as this inevitably will crowd out financing for the green transition, thus making its progress slower.
We must acknowledge that Infrastructural impacts are multi-dimensional, therefore we must not neglect social rights and social innovation.
We also need to respect planetary boundaries. SDG 9 is still heavily wedded to the philosophy of economic growth, aiming to significantly raise industry’s share of GDP. GDP is a very poor metric for measuring societal progress and wellbeing. As we have heard many times that we are not on track. After 7 and a half years of no doubt well intentioned work on the SDGs, we are actually going backwards. And the definition of madness is doing the same things and expecting different results. So perhaps it’s time to radically adjust how we measure progress. If you are not on track, then we can also think about changing strategy. We need to abandon GDP as a measure of the health of our societies, and we need a transition to a wellbeing economy based on sufficiency and living well. The infrastructure funded today will be setting the path for years to come, we should heed the warnings and the calls from civil society and citizens not to lock us into a hydrocarbon future. Thank you.
—-
Dear distinguished delegates,
I am here today to speak on behalf of UNECE RCEM, Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism.
Regarding transport, we should provide citizens with access to climate-friendly, non-polluting heating and transport technologies, in line with both environmental concerns and households’ reduced budgets. Research has shown that highly subsidized and low carbon public transport options have been widely popular over private transport where implemented. Citizens want the greener options and they want them to be affordable, regulation to ensure this is clearly needed, for instance in the rail and air sectors.
Infrastructure in the mobility sector is currently in a poor state and is not on track across our region. Train networks and public transport do not receive sufficient investments across the region, even in the rich countries. The EU’s Eurostat report on SDGs says that the share of buses and trains is very negative (so even the official statistics reaffirm that).
The share of sustainable freight such as inland waterway and on rail is evaluated negatively. However, we do see some positive examples, such as Luxembourg that made all public transport including trains free for everyone to incentivize a shift from individual cars to trains. More countries in the region can follow this example.
I also want to raise the extremely high level of industrial air pollution caused by coal fired power plants. This is still true inside the EU where 20.000 lives could be saved by lowering emissions and preventing premature death. In other countries across the region, highly polluting coal fired power plants are causing severe health impact, for instance, the heavily polluting power plants in the Western Balkans.
There is also a need to make the industrial sectors in UNECE less dependent on raw materials from other regions of the world, protecting the rights of environmental defenders and the communities who are victims of the recent rise in geopolitical competition for resources. We hear a lot about decarbonisation but not about dematerialisation.
We are deeply concerned by the narratives of simply ‘securing access’ to critical raw materials, with a blatant disregard to ensuring equity, social and environmental justice, and the right to say NO for affected communities. The social and ecological risks of the transition should not be sidelined in pursuit of quick profits.
—-
ON SDG 9 as a wider goal, I share some reflections from Civil Society groups on behalf of ECE-RCEM.
Despite great advances, we can argue that the industrial revolution is the source of today’s climate crisis, due to the enormous release of stored carbon into our atmosphere. Industrial policies as a whole are not yet environmentally sustainable nor environmentally just.
If done correctly, the decarbonisation of industries can increase public sector led investment in infrastructure, providing decent living wages and protecting labour rights. But this means being bold rather than simply reacting to the crises which engulf us.
Less industrialized countries will need more support. Historical emitters must accept responsibility for the impacts of the climate crisis and compensate accordingly. We should support free sharing of intellectual knowledge for low carbon industrial solutions.
There is also a need to make the industrial sectors in UNECE less dependent on raw materials from other regions of the world, protecting the rights of environmental defenders and the communities who are victims of the recent rise in geopolitical competition for resources.
We are deeply concerned by the narratives of simply ‘securing access’ to critical raw materials, with a blatant disregard to ensuring equity, social and environmental justice, and the right to say NO for affected communities. The social and ecological risks of the transition should not be sidelined in pursuit of quick profits.
We also need to close the digital skills gap, between men and women, between rich and poor. We should remember that regional development is often unequal, with funds and support unequally distributed and that cities often benefit more than rural areas.
We should prioritize universal public services which secure a decent and dignified standard of living for all people. Industrial transition will also require changes to our world of work and labour market, adequate support must be in place for those who are set to lose out as the industry transitions.
I have heard the phrase Just transition several times over the last two days, however we have to critically assess its use and ensure that it is not simply a buzzword or discursive tool, that the phrase itself is not emptied of its meaning.
Most importantly we should go beyond simple dialogue and national self congratulations to spurring real action on SDG 9 and on all SDGs. Thank you.
I am here today to speak on behalf of UNECE RCEM, Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism. I am Jeff Moxom from EEB.
We need a real comprehensive global strategy on the SDGs which can go beyond an “SDG by SDG” approach. We also need the structured and meaningful engagement of civil society.
We thank you for listening and for taking the vital input of civil society on board.
Despite the mixed progress outlined by the 2023 UNECE report on sustainable and clean industries (9.4) there are worrying regressions in the data as the climate and biodiversity crises worsens.
Infrastructure and industry in the region has been heavily impacted by Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and by environmental disasters, which occur with increasing frequency. We support green reconstruction efforts by countries to rebuild with long term sustainability in mind.
We should urgently embark on transformative changes towards a circular, decarbonised and zero pollution industry. Citizens and the least fortunate must not be forced to pay the price of industrial polluters, the polluter pays principle must be upheld.
Infrastructure must not lock our economies into expensive technologies that contradict our SDG commitments. We have heard from cement, transport and construction industries, where there is still great progress to be made. We have mentioned power generation, and we need to look at this holistically and spot the interlinkages in conjunction with our energy system.
Let’s take some examples from the European Union, a key focus of SDG Watch Europe the civil society coalition that I work with. Billions of euros that have been put aside for Europe’s post-Covid recovery could now be diverted into a raft of new fossil fuel infrastructure projects. These deals may lock Europe and its citizens into contracts for the next 20 years and risk undermining its green transition efforts, not mentioning the local impacts on people and planet.
By amending the RRF regulation, the EU’s post covid plan, the EU has agreed to temporarily set aside the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ principle that ensures funded projects cause no environmental damage. In doing so, dozens of fossil fuel infrastructure projects proposed across Europe are now eligible for money originally set aside for post-Covid recovery initiatives. Is that what we had in mind when we said we needed to build back better?
Journalists and NGOs have identified 41 liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal or gas pipeline developments, 26 offshore or floating bases (FSRU and FSU) and eight onshore terminal projects – most of which could now partly be funded with the diverted Covid money.
That is a disaster for our climate commitments. On top of the lengthy contracts of 15 or 20 years Europe will have built thousands of kilometres of pipeline, potentially partly funded with Repower EU money, exactly at the time we need to be phasing out fossil fuels and financing renewables.
We echo the civil society who have spoken out loudly against the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the EU’s taxonomy for sustainable finance. Fossil gas and nuclear should not have access to the same cheap financing as renewables as this inevitably will crowd out financing for the green transition, thus making its progress slower.
We must acknowledge that Infrastructural impacts are multi-dimensional, therefore we must not neglect social rights and social innovation.
We also need to respect planetary boundaries. SDG 9 is still heavily wedded to the philosophy of economic growth, aiming to significantly raise industry’s share of GDP. GDP is a very poor metric for measuring societal progress and wellbeing. As we have heard many times that we are not on track. After 7 and a half years of no doubt well intentioned work on the SDGs, we are actually going backwards. And the definition of madness is doing the same things and expecting different results. So perhaps it’s time to radically adjust how we measure progress. If you are not on track, then we can also think about changing strategy. We need to abandon GDP as a measure of the health of our societies, and we need a transition to a wellbeing economy based on sufficiency and living well. The infrastructure funded today will be setting the path for years to come, we should heed the warnings and the calls from civil society and citizens not to lock us into a hydrocarbon future. Thank you.
—-
Dear distinguished delegates,
I am here today to speak on behalf of UNECE RCEM, Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism.
Regarding transport, we should provide citizens with access to climate-friendly, non-polluting heating and transport technologies, in line with both environmental concerns and households’ reduced budgets. Research has shown that highly subsidized and low carbon public transport options have been widely popular over private transport where implemented. Citizens want the greener options and they want them to be affordable, regulation to ensure this is clearly needed, for instance in the rail and air sectors.
Infrastructure in the mobility sector is currently in a poor state and is not on track across our region. Train networks and public transport do not receive sufficient investments across the region, even in the rich countries. The EU’s Eurostat report on SDGs says that the share of buses and trains is very negative (so even the official statistics reaffirm that).
The share of sustainable freight such as inland waterway and on rail is evaluated negatively. However, we do see some positive examples, such as Luxembourg that made all public transport including trains free for everyone to incentivize a shift from individual cars to trains. More countries in the region can follow this example.
I also want to raise the extremely high level of industrial air pollution caused by coal fired power plants. This is still true inside the EU where 20.000 lives could be saved by lowering emissions and preventing premature death. In other countries across the region, highly polluting coal fired power plants are causing severe health impact, for instance, the heavily polluting power plants in the Western Balkans.
There is also a need to make the industrial sectors in UNECE less dependent on raw materials from other regions of the world, protecting the rights of environmental defenders and the communities who are victims of the recent rise in geopolitical competition for resources. We hear a lot about decarbonisation but not about dematerialisation.
We are deeply concerned by the narratives of simply ‘securing access’ to critical raw materials, with a blatant disregard to ensuring equity, social and environmental justice, and the right to say NO for affected communities. The social and ecological risks of the transition should not be sidelined in pursuit of quick profits.
—-
ON SDG 9 as a wider goal, I share some reflections from Civil Society groups on behalf of ECE-RCEM.
Despite great advances, we can argue that the industrial revolution is the source of today’s climate crisis, due to the enormous release of stored carbon into our atmosphere. Industrial policies as a whole are not yet environmentally sustainable nor environmentally just.
If done correctly, the decarbonisation of industries can increase public sector led investment in infrastructure, providing decent living wages and protecting labour rights. But this means being bold rather than simply reacting to the crises which engulf us.
Less industrialized countries will need more support. Historical emitters must accept responsibility for the impacts of the climate crisis and compensate accordingly. We should support free sharing of intellectual knowledge for low carbon industrial solutions.
There is also a need to make the industrial sectors in UNECE less dependent on raw materials from other regions of the world, protecting the rights of environmental defenders and the communities who are victims of the recent rise in geopolitical competition for resources.
We are deeply concerned by the narratives of simply ‘securing access’ to critical raw materials, with a blatant disregard to ensuring equity, social and environmental justice, and the right to say NO for affected communities. The social and ecological risks of the transition should not be sidelined in pursuit of quick profits.
We also need to close the digital skills gap, between men and women, between rich and poor. We should remember that regional development is often unequal, with funds and support unequally distributed and that cities often benefit more than rural areas.
We should prioritize universal public services which secure a decent and dignified standard of living for all people. Industrial transition will also require changes to our world of work and labour market, adequate support must be in place for those who are set to lose out as the industry transitions.
I have heard the phrase Just transition several times over the last two days, however we have to critically assess its use and ensure that it is not simply a buzzword or discursive tool, that the phrase itself is not emptied of its meaning.
Most importantly we should go beyond simple dialogue and national self congratulations to spurring real action on SDG 9 and on all SDGs. Thank you.