BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 11. Climate awareness requires a map that identifies important inner capacities, skills, and perspectives, Inner Development Goals co-founder Erik Fernholm said during a panel discussion on “Leveraging on Inner Development to Support the Transition to Regenerative and Empowering Cities” Trend reports.
“We don't have a crisis of sustainability, we have a crisis of behavior. We are responsible for where we have ended up, and that realization is uncomfortable. It's an emotional process: if we can't deal with negative emotions and hold onto them, we cannot understand the situation. We get defensive, make excuses, and carry on as before,” he said.
According to him, it is important to realize that our actions create our challenges.
“It's a brutal truth, but it's encouraging: by realizing this, we can see where we can make changes. When animal species disappear every day and we all have microplastics in our bodies, that's not a world to be proud of. No one wants that, and that says something about us as human beings. We are striving for a meaningful life and we want to invest in a better future,” he added.
Fernholm emphasized that this requires an internal goal map, which shows what abilities are needed to emotionally recognize a problem.
“It is important for us to think systematically, find new perspectives, and act - both individually and collectively,” said the co-founder.
The opening ceremony of the much-anticipated COP29 conference has kicked off today at the Baku Olympic Stadium.
The highest-level event within COP29, the World Leaders Climate Action Summit, will take place from November 12-13.
The decision to host COP29 in Azerbaijan was made at the COP28 plenary session held in Dubai on December 11 of last year.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in June 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, aims to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. The “COP” (Conference of the Parties) is the highest governing body responsible for overseeing the convention’s implementation.
A total of 198 countries participate in the convention. Unless otherwise agreed, COP is held annually. The first COP took place in Berlin in March 1995, with its secretariat headquartered in Bonn.