The Nordics are at the forefront of saving the tropical forests of the world — right?
By +SocialGood Connector Henriette Weber
Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’ could be a song about how Nordics feel about the SDGs, at least when it comes to more government-oriented instances. Yes, we are in the lead, and yes, that is a good thing for our Nordic nations. Once again we are setting the agenda high and once again we can be seen as role models.
As I said, my next comments are not meant as an insult against our ranking, but I want to ask: does it matter if we are in the front of the bus if the bus needs to run a lot faster to reach the SDGs before 2030?
At least in Denmark, our well-ranked progress lead the old government to feel that if ‘we are already doing more than the rest of the world, why should we invest more in the SDGs’?
Luckily, this mentality seems to have changed with the new Danish government and our new prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. She took the stage at the Climate Action Summit at UN General Assembly last week and stated that “Denmark is prepared to be a global green guiding star.” The prime minister shared Danish pension funds commitments to make further green investments worth. This shift will transition $50 billion by 2030, which is the equivalent to 12% of the Danish national GDP.
But one thing is what we state, and another thing is how we act. Nordics have very high per capita material footprints — if everybody on the planet consumed like Nordic countries do, we would need around 2.7 and 4.2 planets. This is the decade of action and we need to act on all the initiatives that the governments have stated, and then we need to act on some more.
We need to be in front of the bus and we need to make the bus run a lot faster. What if we all committed to do 3x as much as we are doing right now? 10 times? Would it be enough to stop the climate crisis, which we all are a part of? Would it be sufficient to create exponential action over the next decade, to make our future safe for our kids?
I think we owe it to them to lead on action instead of looking to them for hope. I think we should challenge each other; every nation, every region, every industry, every business, every neighborhood, every family and every individual, to do a lot more. In Jonathan Safran Foer’s book ‘We Are the Weather,’ he states that everybody should make their own climate action plan. How much can you do? How can you do it? We all need to do everything we can.
And how are we doing?
As a part of CARE’s work (the NGO — which happens also to be my employer), we are working with the civil society networks who are pushing governments to keep track on the SDGs. Recently, we have helped the Nordic Council of Ministers with a report around SDG 12.
The report shares an overview on how the Nordic countries are doing on the targets under SDG 12, sustainable consumption and production patterns. This goal is something that is being worked on a lot in the Nordics — especially since we have the high per capita material footprint. Here is the progress we’ve made, and where we have yet to improve:
Luckily this report comes with recommendations, so every country in the North can see what they can do to advance SDG 12 in the region.
How is Denmark doing around minimizing global pressure on forests?
Each year Denmark imports 1.7 million tons of feed soy to feed our production animals. This massive amount of imports come with no regulations to ensure responsibility around tropical deforestation, wildfires, forced displacement of locals, or the disrespect for human rights. This is the direct opposite of the intention our country had when they signed onto agreements to minimize global pressure on forests. With all our current work, it is failings like our treatment of the Amazon that keeps us SO far from achieving the Amsterdam Declaration of 100% deforestation-free value chains in 2020.
Being the first Danish +SocialGood Connector, I felt a little bad reading about the impact me and my fellow citizens’ consumption has on forests around the world. I hope the Danish government will step up their work to help save the Amazon and other tropical forest around the world.
Now, I could just say ‘over to you, Danish government’ — while still listening to ‘We Are the Champions.’ However, I know that is not enough. Instead, I will see what I can do to support progress on this issue. How can I impact the Danish government while also doing my fair share so that we reach the stated Amsterdam Declaration, which actually is a promise to the world?
Here are some of my personal thoughts on ways to take action today:
- Right now, I am working on getting a statement to the +SocialGood Community from the government on how we are going to reach the Amsterdam Declaration by 2020.
- I am determined to eat less meat, especially beef. In Jonathan’s book (‘We Are the Weather’, remember?) he states that a good way of doing your share is to only be a carnivore only at dinner. For the rest of our meals, we should be vegetarians. That would be a very concrete way to serve the trees, planet and ourselves.
The report on SDG 12 holds a lot of other recommendations to the Nordic governments from the Nordic Council of ministers on ways to improve sustainability and combat the climate crisis. You can download it in full here. And if you ever need backup to change/serve/save the world, I am only an email away…
