Stories
September 16, 2021 • 2 min read
GOAL has launched In Conversations with Connections; a video series that links world leaders in the fields of Food Systems and Climate Change to discuss the connections between them, their work, and the solutions to global issues.
This series forms part of GOAL’s #Connected2 campaign, which aims to encourage better awareness and understanding of how people all over the globe are interconnected.
#Connected2 – The Campaign
The #Connected2 campaign comes ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit, 23rd September 2021, and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), 31st of October – 12th November. These high-level conferences will see global leaders discuss how they can work to fight the impacts of food insecurity and climate change, two of the biggest crises facing humanity today.
The UN has warned that more than 811 million people – approximately one in ten of the world’s population – are suffering from malnutrition and hunger, 118 million more people than last year. As well as this, climate change is resulting in more frequent and intense drought, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers wreaking havoc on people’s livelihoods and communities.
“We want to encourage as many people as possible to begin conversations on how they can start to affect change from the ground up,” says Ellen Corby, Global Citizenship Education and Engagement Officer with GOAL. “Food systems which negatively impact the environment, from production to consumption, accelerate climate change, which in turn impacts food systems again. These issues are connected, and we need a collective, connected response. #Connected2 encourages everyone to start responding.”
In Conversations with Connections
In Conversations with Connections, Iseult Ward, CEO of FoodCloud, a social enterprise which redistributes large quantities of surplus food across Ireland, discusses the impact of food waste with Ruth Mhone, Land Resource Officer with the Ministry for Agriculture in Malawi. “Food waste is responsible for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time we have people who are facing food insecurity, so we really believe in the power of food to connect people.”
The importance of campaigns like #Connected2 is highlighted by Argelia Bustillo, a marine biologist from Honduras. Argelia, who took part in the video series with Beth Doherty, a young climate activist from Dublin, says “if you don’t see it, if you don’t know about it, you’re not going to get involved and you’re not going to do anything about it. I think that to educate people is a key inclusivity strategy.”
“My generation is being handed a bleak future and that’s not fair,” said Flossie Donnelly, a 13 year-old environmental activist from Dublin, who took part in the video series with Nyandire Reinhard Bonke, a wildlife conservationist in Nairobi, Kenya. “We are going to solve it, but we do need help from the adults.”
What are you #Connected2? Get involved today – Share your story on social media with the hashtag #Connected2.
