___________________________________________________

Earth Hour: An Awareness Creation Campaign from World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) To Mitigate Climate Change

Ayoub Hameedi

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is working on diverse issues in relation to environment to create a sustainable future where we and our coming generations would live in harmony with mother nature. The Swedish Chapter of WWF International was established in 1971 with a primary aim to participate financially in the operations of WWF International and to preserve natural resources in Sweden. WWF Sweden is celebrating Earth Hour on 24 March 2018 between 20:30 – 21:30. It is a campaign designed to create awareness among masses on the issue of climate change. A core rule to participate in Earth Hour is to switch-off lights on the aforementioned date and time.

A question that might arise is how can turning off lights help us in mitigating climate change?. The answer is that we extensively rely on fossil fuels for power production and transportation. The burning of conventional sources release greenhouse gases into atmosphere. A critical point to understand is that greenhouse gases naturally exits in our atmosphere and are required to sustain life on earth. However, the man-made release of greenhouse gases through burning of fossil fuel disturbs this natural balance. Consequently, the increased concentration then leads to an increase in global average temperature. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), global average temperature was 0.9 °C higher in year 2017 and 17 of the warmest years in 136 years of recorded history occurred since the beginning of 21st century. This rise in global average temperature is negatively affecting the ice mass in Greenland, Antarctica and Arctic. Unfortunately, Antarctica on average lose 127 Gigatonnes of ice mass every year and has collectively lost an estimated 1870 Gigatonnes of ice mass since 2002.  An even worse scenario can be observed in Greenland that loses 286 Gigatonnes of ice mass per year and has lost an estimated 3,777 Gigatonnes of ice mass since 2002. A similar trend can be seen in Artic that is losing sea ice cover with a rate of 13.2% every decade. NASA is recording data in Arctic since 1979 and has revealed that the sea ice was the lowest in September 2012 (i.e. 3.4 million square kilometers). The Arctic sea ice cover was 4.8 million square kilometers in September 2017 however, the same sea ice cover was 7 million square kilometers in September 1979. Thus, a loss of 2.2 million square kilometers in sea ice can be observed in Arctic.

Another focus area of Earth Hour is to increase the financial investments to upscale the use of clean energy technologies to minimize reliance on fossil fuels. With reference to Sweden, the current Government of Mr. Stefan Lövfen can play a vibrant role by up-scaling the installed wind power capacity in Sweden. On 26th June 2017, the number of installed onshore wind turbines was 3313 with an overall installed capacity of 6,328 MWs, respectively. Now, if each of the already installed 3313 onshore wind turbines would be upgraded a MW, another 3313 MWs would be added to the onshore wind power capacity in Sweden. The given recommendation is both realistic and feasible. It is important to mention here that Denmark today has 20% less installed wind turbines than it had in 2001 however, collective installed wind power capacity has increased two-fold since 2001. Similarly, Mr. Lövfen can issue an administrative order to the concerned authorities to up-scale the installed off-shore wind power capacity from 74 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 190 MWs (as on 26-06-2017) to around 2 GWs by 2020. It can prove to be an effective strategy before Mr. Lövfen heads for the next elections in September 2018. So, collectively over 5 GWs of wind power would be added to the overall energy mix of Sweden. It will for sure facilitate Prime Minister Stefan Lövfen to reduce Sweden’s reliance on nuclear power (especially in case of Ringhals 1 & 2 that are likely to be decommissioned in 2019 – 2020). It is equally important to mention here that German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to phase out the use of nuclear power in Germany by 2022. Her administration plans to phase out six nuclear reactors by 2021 and another three by 2022. A third strategy can be to increase the percentage of finances from annual budget for wind power and Mr. Lövfen can certainly use this sector as a tool to decrease unemployment in Sweden. The ratio of unemployment was 6.7% in Sweden in FY 2017 whereas, the same figure was 6.32% for the rest of OECD. It must be appreciated that the current government has introduced new climate act whose basic spirit is to bind current and coming governments in Sweden to prioritize climate. Up-scaling installed wind power capacity can prove to be a key strategy to achieve this goal especially when the next elections are just around the corner.

All in all, Earth Hour gives us a quick reminder that our reliance on fossil fuels is disturbing the concentration of greenhouse gases in atmosphere. This disturbance is leading the whole world into an uncertain era of climate change where the rising global average temperature is disturbing the ecological system across the planet. Climate change is already costing over a trillion USD to governments across the globe. In Sweden as in any other country, Government, private sector and non-profits have to work together to create a sustainable future that would be socially equitable, financially viable and ecologically sustainable for us and our coming generations.

© Copyright 2018 Ayoub Hameedi. All rights reserved. 

How Save The Children Sweden Is Improving The Lives Of Young Ones

Ayoub Hameedi

Save the Children Sweden can certainly be referred to as a movement to protect the rights of children both within and beyond the borders of Sweden. First World War (WWI) certainly changed the landscape of Europe in undesirable ways one of which was that around 3 million children suffered badly due to the consequences of the war. However, when the news surfaced, Eldsjälen Eglantyne Jebb could not resist herself to do whatever she could to give those children a better life. In the series of action she executed, one was to organize a mass meeting in Albert Hall on 19 May 1919 that lead to the idea of Save the Children Fund. After a span of six months, Save the Children was founded in Sweden with Ellen Palmstierna as its first Chairman and journalists Gerda Marcus and Elin Wägner were among the first activists for the newly founded organization. In 2019, Save the Children Sweden will celebrate its 100 years of care and guidance to turn the lives of young ones in positive ways.

Save the Children Sweden primarily works on issues concerning children’s right to attend school, offering a decent life to those living in war prone areas and are making their way to safer zones and to those exposed to violence and sexual abuse. Besides these mentioned issues, Save the Children also offer advice to parents on how to deal with issues concerning children for example, if a kid does not like to visit dentist due to physical or psychological pain or how can parents resolve issues with kids in a sustainable manner. Few of the general recommendations are to focus more on positive stuff than negative, be reasonable, socialize more often and try to improve the quality of your relationship with your kids, stay clam & approach things in a relax manner and finally ask for help if you need help. As spoken earlier, Save the Children Sweden also facilitate children from war prone areas to start a new life in a protective environment and offers much needed psychological help to kids as well. It is important to mention here that kids from war prone areas normally suffers from extreme psychological pressures as they had seen things one does not see in a normal situation. Keeping this simple fact in mind, Save the Children Sweden has introduced a helping tool referred to as transforming care. It is basically a tool designed to help the elders to provide social settings to kids which could comfort the troubled souls. The aforementioned tool was designed by two Australian psychologists Howard Bath and Diana Boswell who worked with children exposed to traumatic situations for over 4 decades. Save the Children offer training courses up to two days where seminars can vary from 45 minutes in length to up till 3 hours. The organization has worked extensively to save refugees in 2016 & 2017 and managed to save 10,000 masses in Mediterranean sea, out of which 1500 were children in need of immediate help and assistance. 

Save the Children Sweden is currently working on four major campaigns: first and foremost of which is My body is mine, a campaign to tackle sexual abuse against children. As per the given facts, Police in Sweden received 3,000 cases of rapes against children in 2013. The given figure was also followed by the information that almost every fifth child in Europe has experienced some sort of serious sexual assault in his / her life. The sole aim of this campaign is to create awareness on the issue of child sexual abuse in Sweden and across the globe. Another campaign is Poor School with the primary aim to increase the chances of children in financially tight situation to attend the school and to subsequently improve the quality of life in coming years. Education is for sure a key that unlocks the door to an improved quality of life. The third campaign is The World is Oppochner with the aim to encourage governments to spend more money on providing quality education to children in an atmosphere completely free from any physical and psychological abuse. The fourth and last campaign is The Lottery of Life designed to create awareness among masses concerning problems faced by the children all across the globe. This campaign offers an opportunity that if you were reborn in a different place than you are now, how would that influenced your life. In what ways your life would have been different. 

All in all, Save the Children Sweden is certainly one of the key organizations working on the issue of providing an improved quality of life to children in Sweden and beyond the borders of Sweden. The future of any society really depends on how it treats its young ones. Finally, Save the Children Sweden might also produce a snowball effect where a child whose life has been positively impacted will then improve the lives of other children as well.

© Copyright 2018 Ayoub Hameedi. All rights reserved. 

WWF Sweden and Climate Solver as It’s Effective Tool To Mitigate Climate Change

Ayoub Hameedi

World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) Sweden was established in 1971 with the aim to financially participate in the operations of WWF International and to promote research and education on the issue of conservation in Sweden. The core aim of WWF Sweden is to preserve biodiversity and to promote sustainability when it comes to the use of natural resources both in Sweden and at international level. WWF Sweden has an advisory council comprised of 50 members. His Majesty the King Karl XVI Gustav is the president of this advisory council. The aim of this council is to steer the direction of WWF Sweden and to elect the members of its board. Half of board members are from Swedish organizations and institutions whereas, the remaining 50% are elected on the basis of their personal merits. The General Secretary of WWF Sweden is responsible for managing operations within the office. WWF Sweden primarily operates on the basis of donations.

Among the several interesting projects at WWF Sweden, a key project aimed to promote the use of technologies to minimize greenhouse gases emission and to enable a swift transition to 100% renewable energy is Climate Solver. It focuses on 9 countries namely European Union (EU), China, India, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Netherlands and Sweden. An interesting innovative solution promoted by Climate Solver platform is Solvatten which is a device to transform undrinkable water into clean drinking water with the help of solar energy. The device is filled with dirty water which is then left under the sunlight. It has an indicator which lets the user know as and when the water is safe to drink. Since Solvatten replaces the need to boil water therefore it can help reduce the greenhouse gases emission. At present, if the device is up-scaled to 20% of its targeted population of 80 million households, it can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 26 million tonnes on annual basis by 2020. Plus, it will make clean drinking water readily available to water deprived masses in water stressed regions of the world.

Similarly, another innovative solution highlighted by Climate Solver platform is the vertical axis wind turbine with an output capacity of 200kw and an ability to generate 2,200 capacity hours on annual basis. The vertical axis wind turbine has a life span of 20 years and can reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide up to 8,800 tonnes during an individual turbines life span. The vertical axis wind turbine will be a very good solution to reduce emissions in rapidly developing countries like India, where both population as well as demand for electricity is rapidly increasing. Unfortunately, 240 million Indians still have no access to electricity  and the vertical axis wind turbine can prove to be an effective tool to bridge this gulf provided considered and implemented by the Government of India. Likewise according to World Bank statistics, 37.6% of masses in Bangladesh lacked access to electricity in 2014. Therefore, if the same solution is executed and up-scaled briefly in Bangladesh, it can certainly make a huge difference in the lives of poverty stricken masses in Bangladesh too.

Another interesting solution highlighted by Climate Solver to mitigate climate change is photovoltaic ceramic tile. The given solution is introduced by Zhejiang Heda Solar Technology Co., LTD. and if applied to 25 million buildings (i.e. around 5% of the low residential buildings across the globe by 2023 can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 25 million tons on annual basis. Along with China, if the same solution is implemented in the neighboring countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh on easy availability basis and at a fair price, it will already be in a position to reach around 3 billion masses (i.e. around 40% of the global population). So, the given solution of  photovoltaic ceramic tile has a lot of potential provided up-scaled and made available to masses in neighboring countries on easy terms. Again, around 15% of masses in Nepal lacked access to electricity and if photovoltaic ceramic tile is offered to energy deprived masses in Nepal on affordable terms and conditions, it will certainly provide them with electricity which will then expand their economic window of opportunity and uplift them out of poverty. The same would be the case for 8% of the total population of Sri Lanka which lacked access to electricity by the end of 2014. The provision of electricity will enable the respective national Governments to harvest 100% of the available human potential. Amartya Sen rightly said that Poverty is much more than shortage of money, its an inability of a human being to deliver his or her fullest of potential. The required solutions are already there, the need of hour is to make them available on a wider scale and on affordable terms & conditions, so that the targeted masses would seek benefit from them. It is important to highlight here that green buildings represent an investment potential of USD 1.5 trillion in the region of South Asia from present till 2030. A key factor to increase the sustainability of a building is to use photovoltaic ceramic tiles, so that the construction project once completed would be able to generate a certain percentage of its consumed electricity.

An equally interesting solution highlighted by Climate Solver is the Liquid Nano Clay invented by a Norwegian cleantech company name Desert Control. The basic idea is to form “liquid nano clay” by mixing clay and water and spreading it over sandy soil. The applied solution then creates an ability in sandy soil to hold water and thus transform itself into fertile soil. The Desert Control company is already in operation in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. The presented solution can help countries like Pakistan which is rapidly growing in terms of population however, is most seriously at risk due to climate change. During last 50 years, the average temperature in Pakistan has increased 0.5°C and consequently, the frequency of heat wave days on annual basis has increased five-fold. A map reflecting countries with food insecurity due to climate change shows that almost whole of the Central & South America, Africa and Asia is food insecure due to climate change. As spoken earlier, the up-scaling of the presented solutions may improve access to food in countries within these regions.

Finally, WWF Sweden is certainly amongst the top most non-profit organizations working for the conservation of biodiversity and the promotion of sustainability in every walk of life. The interesting solutions highlighted by the Climate Solver certainly have the potential to steer us in the right direction where we would have the ability to mitigate the environmental challenge of climate change with least of the damage. However, to accomplish this target, it is extremely pertinent to upscale the highlighted climate solutions on a mega scale so we can create a world which is socially equitable, financially viable and environmentally sustainable for us and our coming generations. 

© Copyright 2017 - 2018 Ayoub Hameedi. All rights reserved.