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What are the most relevant actions/targets proposed in SDG#13?
For me, and ever since I’ve first read up about the SDGs, including #13, the most relevant action would be 13.1, strengthening the adaptive capability with regards to climate change hazards in all countries. With the effects of Climate Change becoming more and more noticeable, there is a pressing need to help and ensure that all countries can adapt and respond to these effects.
How do SDG #13 targets respond to the challenges created by the effects of climate change in water in both Indigenous and non-indigenous communities?
After reading through the targets, it seems that SDG #13 is responding to the challenges through education, assistance, and promises that the developed nations should and will lend assistance to the lesser developed nations in developing their adaptability to these issues.
What other areas do you think should be taken into account?
I believe that it should be directly stated in the SDG #13, or at least re-worded, that all countries has to integrate climate change into their policies urgently. I also believe that most of the targets within SDG #13 seems to have forgotten the concept of immersion.
We are taught in school the concept of immersion as a problem solving tactic, what it simply says is that there are two sides in every situation; those being helped and those helping. Immersion is when those helping live with those being helped rather than, say, dictating what they want to teach, rather than what is needed to be taught in order to solve the big problem.
SDG #13 has forgotten to add immersion, I argue that the developed nations has to be compelled to listen to the nations being affected by climate change, so that a proper solution can be come up with. While I am aware that 2B covers indigenous tribes and climate change, I think it is fitting for it to be brought up here, REDD+ and the video shown on 2B is Immersion, in that the video urges the governments to take into consideration the people being helped.
The developed nations has to take into consideration the identity - their culture, their history, their politics, and everything about them - of the developing nations they are helping, and to go into dialogue, not dictation, with them with regards to effective solutions that is inclusive and helpful for everyone. I would also like to mention that money is not everything, and thankfully education is covered in SDG #13 under 13.3
Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough, that the funding must not come with strings attached. The United Nations is a wonderful concept and a beautiful idea that has come out of the ashes of the Second World War, for it offers a neutral platform for nations to talk to one another, and also to coordinate on global issues. The problem with funding, especially between nations, is that there would always be an ulterior motive, the decision to give money will always be affected by policies.
Therefore, it has to be stated in the SDG #13 that financial support for climate change must not be used as a pawn and/or force projection - political and economic influence that is - in geopolitics, for climate change is a big environmental issue which dwarfs other problems and makes them look petty.
What elements would you incorporate if you had to build and action/target that addressed water, Indigenous peoples, and non-indigenous people. Provide a brief rationale that justifies each element?
Immediate Action Target: Boosting adaptability.
Based on the videos and articles I’ve watched and read, rising sea levels are affecting agrarian societies in developing nations, as such we have to do everything we can to help mitigate the problem.
Long Term Target - Immersive Dialogue
The developed nations, and even the national governments of the developing nations, has to listen and respect the Indigenous peoples, and those being affected by climate change in general, because they know the environment more for they are relying upon it. My rationale behind this can be described in two points: The Human Aspect and Problem solving.
While science is reliable and is trustworthy, it fails to take into consideration the human cost of climate change, Immersion allows us to open our eyes to the human cost of climate change and to understand how it is directly affecting us.
As for problem solving, immersion allows for a two way conversation, rather than a sermon, a dictation, of how to solve the problem. You see, each nation, each group of people have their own identity and their own sensitivities, or things which the ‘helper’ may not recognize as being important to the people they are helping, and as such adaptability and simply listening and understanding is key in effectively helping.
Have I experienced this ‘Immersion’? The answer is yes, we have used Immersion to assist developing communities in a way that is not oppressive and does not ‘spoon feed’, rather it is a way that has constructive dialogue and support - that is not too much nor too little but just right - in order to fix an issue for the long term.
