Big Ambitions Crack

[Regino Meriweather]

WhenI first saw the results of The Big Ambition survey, one number stood out to me above all others. 22% of children agreed that people who run the country listen to what they have to say. Initially this made me feel despondent. That this was a generation who had lost all faith in leaders and politicians. But as I read more and more of the responses to the survey, and reflected on the hundreds of children I had spoken to, I realised the message was in fact a very different one.

This is not a generation who have become cynical, who believe that nothing will ever change. This is a generation who feel frustrated that 4 they are not listened to, exactly because they have complete faith that if they were listened to, then politicians could and would transform their lives for the better.

Four years ago, in the pandemic, children saw the power that the government has to change lives. They saw the government step in to protect children and adults against the threat of the pandemic, to support their families through the furlough scheme, and to rollout a nationwide vaccine drive. Children saw the Prime Minister making decisions in almost real time about whether they could go to school, or see their grandparents. This generation witnessed the power of government to affect radical change. This inspired a belief that governments can and should change policies and laws to make their lives better.

The policies proposed in this paper draw directly on what children themselves told us. As such, they are ambitious. They would make the rights children are entitled to a reality. They are designed to be child[1]up, rather than system-down. They provide a positive vision for what childhood could be like if only it were reimagined through the eyes of children.

But this scale of ambition does not mean that children are purely idealists. Most of their ambitions are quietly pragmatic, and eminently reasonable. They want their local park to be a nicer place to spend time. They want to know they can have someone to talk to when they are sad. They want to stop worrying about the cost of living, and just enjoy their childhood. They want, in short, to be children and be allowed to be children. They believe in the power of adults to transform their lives for the better.

This paper sets out how, with a few clear ambitions, shared across government, both local and national, as well as everyone working with children, and underpinned by action that can be both radical and practical, the lives of children can be dramatically improved. This paper sets out a plan for making childhood not only safe and healthy, but joyful and ambitious.

Ambitions of Washington has been invested in helping people with disabilities since 1992. We strive to help our clients achieve their full potential and aid them in achieving their lifelong ambitions and dreams. We are always seeking new and innovative ways to support people, and we find success in letting our clients direct their own lives.

In Equinor, we believe we have a responsibility and an opportunity to reduce our own emissions and find solutions for systemic change. We have the technology, the expertise and the industrial strength to deliver on the future of energy.

In March 2022, we launched our first Energy Transition Plan, demonstrating how we will achieve ambitious climate targets with concrete actions. It was endorsed by our shareholders at our annual general meeting in 2022.

COP28 took place in Dubai in 2023, and Equinor supported three initiatives: the first seeks to help raise the ambitions of national oil and gas companies, the second seeks to help greatly reduce methane emissions and the third aims to triple global renewables capacity.

Remaining emissions will be compensated either through quota trading systems, such as EU ETS, or high-quality offset mechanisms. In addition, we plan to invest in the protection of tropical forests as soon as a well-functioning market is in place for the private sector.

Discover how we are contributing to the energy transition with new technologies and innovations. In our magazine, meet the people who go to work to solve the energy trilemma of climate, affordability, and security.

Driven by the opportunities within the energy transition and an increasing demand for electricity from renewable energy sources, we continue to build our renewable business. We primarily focus on offshore wind, both bottom-fixed and floating, but we are also exploring opportunities within onshore renewables.

We have a long history of storing CO2 at fields such as Sleipner in the North Sea, and we will build on this experience as we participate in developing full value chains for carbon capture and storage, such as through our ownership in Northern Lights JV together with Shell and Total. We will increase our development in carbon capture and storage.

We are already looking into early-stage opportunities for converting natural gas to clean hydrogen, while capturing and storing the CO2. It is still early days, but we see this as an exciting opportunity for natural gas in the future.

Our digital front-runners are exploring tools and ways of working with big data and machine learning that will enable the whole company and our collaborators to achieve our ambition of net zero. We are seeing the contours of a new wave of digital transformation which will drive sweeping change.

The first chapter of the Survey for 2019 underlines the social and environmental costs of the impressive economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the past 50 years.

Reducing the wide economic, social and environmental deficits in the region is key to implementing the bold and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This requires a change in mindset and a move away from a single-minded emphasis on economic growth.

Countries encountering high and growing levels of inequality and environmental degradation have choices to make. The chapter points out that the comprehensive assessment by the Survey of investment needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific offers policymakers a blueprint for systematically charting out a path to implement the 2030 Agenda.

The near-term economic outlook for the region is stable with a moderate rise in inflation forecast for developing countries in the region in 2019. The greatest risk facing the region is trade tensions, which can have economic, social and environmental consequences.

Growth in the region has not been people- and planet-friendly with rising income inequality, environmental degradation and increased climate risks. It is time to use fiscal policies to step up investment in sustainable development for short-term growth as well as long-term prosperity.

It calculates the annual funding needs to end extreme poverty and malnutrition, provide basic health care, quality education and an enabling infrastructure for all in the region by 2030, without breaching planetary limits. It finds that these investments are largely affordable for the Asia-Pacific region although countries with special needs will require help.

Mobilizing the additional financial resources needed to bridge this investment gap requires a concerted effort harnessing public resources, leveraging the private sector and promoting development partnerships and regional cooperation.

The concluding chapter notes that the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda provide a clear blueprint for raising ambitions beyond economic growth. It calls for people and countries to work together to ensure no one is left behind in this journey towards sustainable development. It proposes to move away from a model of profit maximization to one that puts purpose at its core.

Beyond the ambitions, ICCA members will continue to engage in and support the sound management of chemicals and waste and the adoption of the new framework at the upcoming International Conference of Chemicals Management.

The International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) is an association of innovators, visionaries, solutions providers and product stewardship pioneers. Through ongoing innovation in chemistry and the constant improvement of safe chemicals management, the global chemical industry makes a significant contribution to a sustainable society: improving human health, protecting the environment, and delivering prosperity worldwide.

3a8082e126