A UN Day focused on real problems

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• #Sustainability

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“United Nations Day highlights the enduring ideals of the Charter, which entered into force on this date 74 years ago. Amid stormy global seas, the Charter remains our shared moral anchor,” remarks UN Secretary-General António Guterres. And he goes on to say: “At this time of turbo-charged change, the United Nations remains focused on the real problems of real people. We are working for a fair globalization and bold climate action.”

So once again, the United Nations addresses one of the main issues confronting humanity in the 21st century: climate change. In recent years, UN Secretary-General has repeatedly called on us all to be leaders in the fight against climate change, declaring climate change the defining issue of our time. Given that this claim is clearly stated in UN messages, we must consider how do we contribute to fighting climate change.

To bear this closely in mind is a very important, even essential, aspect for joining efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Agenda by 2030. That is why the pursuit of environmental sustainability at the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change ESCI-UPF continues a more than a decade of endeavor to allow a substantial improvement in methodologies supporting life cycle assessment applications to climate change mitigation, thus contributing to the UN global priorities.

Researchers at the Chair apply life cycle assessment methodologies to analyse the potential environmental impacts (such as carbon footprint, water depletion or toxicity, among others) of a product, activity or service throughout its life cycle (from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling), and identify improvement opportunities; as well as spread good practices to raise environmental awareness amongst society.

This way, the Chair fights climate change to continue working towards a more sustainable world. But, they are not alone in this commendable endeavor. The Chair is, together with the Mango Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility and the Research in International Studies and Economics (RISE) group at ESCI-UPF, part of a research division dealing with the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. This cooperative work done by researchers groups at ESCI-UPF is an example of how cross-disciplinary the fight against climate change needs to be.

Now, as we celebrate the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter, we also prepare ourselves for next year’s 75th-anniversary milestone: “a critical moment to shape our future, together,” as pointed out by UN Secretary-General. And, we should add that the first step to shaping our future is to address our climate crisis, from politics and business to activism and civil society, including scientists.