Achieving Large Global Goals

Negotiating climate agreements is one of the toughest challenges that humanity will face in the long-term, but can be achieved to honor the 2-degree Celsius limit through a large-scale social movement. There is historical evidence to suggest that magnificent and large-scale social changes, starting with brave, small groups of people can fundamentally change the direction of the world as a while. The Millennium Development Goals have not ended extreme poverty by any means, but the momentum and moral commitment are there to achieve the goal of ending extreme poverty around the world. Climate change and sustainable development is another case where we need a worldwide reorientation of the way we live and what we do. The SDGs must be action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature, and universally applicable. In the aftermath of Rio+20, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon created the Sustainable Development Solutions Network to bring together scientists, engineers, business leaders, and civil society leader to engage in problem solving for the planet. There are some strategies for sites in achieving big social goals. The first part of success is to set goals, and then we must have pathways to achieve those goals, which are achieved through backcasting. Then we will need R&D roadmaps, and the ability to demonstrate these technologies, as well as the rapid scaling up and mass public education within these frameworks. This video is part of the module Towards a New Climate Agreement Based on 2-Degree. It concludes the course Climate Change Science and Negotiations.

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