The Cycle of Conferences is placing a focus, beginning today, on several events: the Youth Climate Summit in New York on 21 September, followed by a week of five summits at the General Assembly in New York, titled “Action for People and Planet” (23 to 27 September) on Climate Action (23); Universal Health Coverage (23); the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (24-25); Financing for Development (26); and Small Island Developing States (27). All of these events are united by their focus on how to implement the SDGs in various ways.
The week of five summits will involve numerous world leaders. However, it’s interesting how much of the leadership on Climate Change is now flowing from Youth, for the obvious reason that Youth will need to live with the consequences of the decisions made by current leaders, and young people can see clearly that these consequences are looking increasingly dire. To cite a recent World Goodwill newsletter (1), “Transition into a new era depends upon leaders of principle, transparently unshakeable in their allegiance to higher principles, and able to nourish the essential spirit of goodness (the core mission) at the centre of the policies, programs and initiatives they inspire and lead.” One of the qualities of true leadership is the dynamic power to inspire supporters to make sacrifices on behalf of the good of the whole, and the example of Greta Thunberg is inspiring many young people around the world to speak up for the needs of all the kingdoms of nature. But how many people, old as well as young, are willing to make the needed sacrifices of materialistic comfort, in order to move humanity forward on a genuinely regenerative path?
The idea of sacrifice has tended to become unfashionable, with the prevailing mindset aimed at ever-increasing material ease. Yet the word itself originally signified the offering of something valuable to a higher being or deity as an act of homage. Surely our solidarity with all other living beings, whose welfare is closely interwoven with human actions, is a cause that deserves our sacrifices? A deeper reading might speak of our willingness to align with planetary purpose, in the ongoing process of the spiritual evolution of the cosmos. Regardless of the terms we choose, it is becoming ever clearer that the achievement of Climate Justice and of the other SDGs cannot happen without significant sacrifices in our current way of life. Our work in meditation can energise this holy will-to-sacrifice.
Our work in assisting this process for the six summits begins today and ends on the 27th of September.
