Climate and Goodwill
KK is a Sustainability Advisor with over 17 years experience
in Environmental Governance and Practice.
In February 2021 the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, designated the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn as the first UN Climate Change Goodwill Ambassador[1].
UN Climate Change is the largest of more than 20 United Nations organizations in Bonn. This designation emphasizes the need to motivate people to positive action to restore climate balance.The climate has changed, it is changing, and will continue to change. Even if we could stop all man-made carbon emissions right now, the climate would continue to change, as the anthropogenic carbon emissions have distorted the earth’s carbon cycle in a way that creates cumulative consequences over time. To simplify, if a person has been smoking for years, their lungs are full of tar, which doesn’t stop creating negative effects for their health, even if that person stops smoking today.
As the earth’s climate changes, its biodiversity and ecosystems become distorted, and both chronic and acute physical and transition risks occur. This affects all life forms, particularly humanity with its complex social structures and interdependent economies.
It is a change for the worse; but it brings about opportunities for the better. It is a systemic change, a domino effect; this requires systemic mitigation and adaptation from mankind. Systemic change requires understanding of the system, but most importantly it requires systemic goodwill.
Climate change is a global issue with local implications. Similar to the recent pandemic, it brings about a feeling of belonging. Belonging to something bigger than ourselves, our family members, our social network, our neighborhood or our local community. During the pandemic, no matter where someone was located, they could empathize with what all of humanity went through. With climate change, humankind faces a similar and more severe global problem. This requires us all to come together in goodwill to resolve it.
Goodwill on the personal level is more or less familiar to all of us. It involves trust or the willingness to go the extra mile to help someone or to resolve an issue, without additional gain necessarily. Systemic goodwill is similar but on a larger scale. In finance, goodwill is an intangible asset that raises a business’ value. It depends on elements that cannot be quantified easily like a company’s good customer relationships, good name, and brand.
When a person or organization chooses a sustainable, ethical option and decides to cover the extra cost or make the extra effort to support it, they are giving an example of systemic goodwill. The choice creates a chain reaction that influences many lives and builds a new culture. The difference is that in this new culture there is the necessary room to appreciate the value of intangible assets, like goodwill, and how important they are to rebalance our world. §
- UN Climate Change, ‘Beethoven Orchestra Bonn Designated First UN Climate Change Goodwill Ambassador’
