(Day 4) SDG Media Zone – 81st Session of the UN General Assembly

Good morning, everyone. We're getting ready to start to kick off day four of the SDG Media Zone. So if everyone can sort of get settled, get seats, you know, come in and have seats on the benches and we will get started very shortly. Thank you. All right, good morning. SDG Media Zone, day four of the SDG Media Zone at UN General Assembly 81. Welcome to you all. Good morning from New York, and good afternoon and good evening to you all watching live via the webcast. It's great to have you all back with us today. I'm Robert Skinner from the Department of Global Communications here at the United Nations. I'm very excited to introduce this next conversation. It's a critical conversation for all of us, I think, as we look at climate and what can we learn from various initiatives that are really moving from invisible majorities to unstoppable movements, and what can climate initiatives learn? And I'm very excited to introduce Melissa Fleming, the Under-Secretary-General of the UN's Department of Global Communications, and my boss. Melissa, over to you.

Thanks so much, Rob, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the SDG Media Zone. We're on day four of, you know, incredible programming, and it's really, really exciting to be here. I was just introduced, and this is a session called "From Invisible Majorities to Unstoppable Movements, and What Can Climate Initiatives Learn?" I'm sure you're very curious about why we chose invisible majorities, and we're gonna really, you know, talk about that because It is going to be the core to this session, how to make these invisible majorities into the loud majorities. And this session is convened by Purpose on behalf of our initiative called Verified for Climate. It's a joint initiative with Purpose, and Jeremy is the CEO of Purpose, is next to us here, and the Department for Global Communications at the UN, which I have the pleasure to lead. So just a quick intro before we get into the discussion and before I introduce these two. Globally, roughly nine in 10 people worldwide want their governments to do more on climate. This was a survey done recently by UNDP and Oxford University around the world. That's 89% of people want their governments to do more on climate. And yet, these same people us underestimate others willingness to act. So many feel isolated because existing support remains hidden. So they don't realize actually that most of their friends and neighbors also want the same thing. So we believe that We need to do something about this, including through communications. We must move beyond our communications to just facts and awareness raising, to capturing people's imaginations, to highlighting solutions, and also to generating an unstoppable movement for the planet. I mean, the Secretary General has been calling the renewable revolution unstoppable. And the movement that we're going to be creating behind that is also going to be unstoppable. So we are joined by two extraordinary movement builders here, Evan Wolfson, who is the founder of Freedom to Marry, and Jeremy Heimans, the co-founder and the chairman of Purpose. So please join me in giving our distinguished panelists a warm welcome. So, my first question is to Evan, and I would love you to also just explain, like, in the elevator pitch, what Freedom to Marry is when you start. It is the campaign that helped secure the nationwide marriage equality in the United States in 2015. And so, Evan, for many years, I think you recognized that Americans were quietly supporting this freedom to marry, but they assumed they were in the minority. So was there a moment when that silent majority became visible to itself, and what actually shifted people's willingness to speak up?

Well, first of all, it's great to be here with you on this important opportunity to move things forward, and I'm really heartened to hear the polling that you talked about in terms of the invisible majority. In our case, we, not to blow up the panel, but we didn't have an invisible majority. We were a minority of people who supported the freedom to marry, and what we had to do was grow a majority and then mobilize that majority into action. So we're already on climate starting in a different place, which is exciting and terrific. I'd say two of the key ways in which we grew our majority, in which we can mobilize the majority for climate change are, number one, was to make people believe it could happen. that there was a pathway forward, there's a way to make something happen. Many people may have been ready to support it, though they weren't supporting it in the case of marriage, because they didn't think it was attainable. They didn't think it was possible. They'd been told no by millennia. And so we had to, first of all, make it clear that there was a way forward, that there was a pathway, that there were actions people could take. And the second, I'd say, crucial element was to not take the people who weren't yet with us and push them into the camp of the hardcore opponents. There were opponents. There were real opponents. And there are opponents to climate change work as well. But what we need to do is bring people along and turn them into actors who can take action. They were the people I thought of as the reachable but not yet reached. So they weren't yet an invisible majority, but they were a reachable potential majority, and we had to turn them into supporters and then actors to get the job done. How did you do that? So there are several elements I would say to how you make change happen. And I would say, to distill it into five, I will give you number one, clarity of goal. What are you trying to achieve? How do you know when you've won? What are you working for? And that has to be concrete. And one of the challenges people have is that we all want many things, and we all might look at it different ways. So you have to make some choices. You have to frame goals clearly for people so that they can be excited by and contribute to the attainment of the goal. So one is goal. Number two is clarity of strategy. Strategy is just a fancy word for pathway. Whom do I need to move to do what when to get the job done? We don't need everybody. We need enough. And we need enough for the goal and what the strategy requires to get the thing to happen. The third element is leadership. Now, leadership is not just who's in charge, the UN Secretary General, the UN Under Secretary General, et cetera, but leadership is also something one communicates. It's communicating hope. It's communicating, I trust that you can move. It's helping people see that they can be part of something and bring a piece to the work. The fourth element is team. because there's no one voice, no one actor, no one organization that can do it all. And people may not even like this particular voice or this particular actor, so on. But when you bring together the team, the multiple players, multiple leaders, the multiple contributors, the allies who are a part of the effort, people begin to see, I may not like what that person's saying, but I can agree with that. I can go along with this. I can do my part here. And so you bring a critical mass of those who are working to get the job done. And the fifth element in sustaining, in creating and sustaining momentum is building blocks. increments of success, achievements, which you celebrate and build on as you keep going. And we all know the work is difficult. There are delays, there are difficulties, there are stumbles, there are missteps, et cetera. You want people to believe that even if we can't win every battle right now, we can at least lose forward. We can put a piece down and build on it, pursuing our clear strategy, the clear pathway to the clear and attainable goal.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Evan. And this is a good segue into Jeremy, who is a big movement builder also back during that time. He's the founder of Avaaz, one of the biggest global movement builder initiatives in the world, but also a purpose, whose purpose it is, is to galvanize people for social good and for social change. And I'm just wondering, maybe just, you wanna react to what Evan just said, because you were also building movements at the same time, but we're also then maybe, you know, talk about this different media environment that we are in, which, where attention is much more fragmented, where algorithms shape what we see, and there's a lot of polarization. So, what, thinking of those five points that Evan just laid out, what do we have to do differently, if at all, or do those, Did Building Blocks still stand?

Well, firstly, I mean, I want to shout out Evan, who is an absolute legend as an activist and who, in a very, as you heard, very intentional, strategic, and long-term way, produced, you know, through his leadership and helping to lead others, one of the most tangible examples we do have of a real win Where we we brought about massive changes in public opinion and ultimately legal changes. So so I think we have a lot to learn from from Evan.

Did you work together on this?

We didn't work together on the US fight, but I was working on the international LGBT rights fight at around the same time and so that I think is extraordinary I think you know, to your question, Melissa, you know, when I was working a little bit on marriage equality in Australia, one of the organizations that I co-founded, GetUp, was one of the big groups fighting for marriage equality back then. And I remember about, it was probably about 11, 12 years ago, we made this beautiful video called It's Time. It was sort of a video clip. You may remember this video where you see this sort of love story unfold with a young man, and you don't know who's on the other end of the love story. And so you're always assuming it's a woman. It's very, you know, it's very sort of in the canon of a romantic story and journey. And then at the very end of the video, it's revealed that he's proposing to a man. And anyway, this video was super viral. It spread all through Australia, all through the world. And it was part of this moment where we were getting the kind of cultural wins, and you mentioned this sort of person-to-person invisible majority dynamic, you know, as more and more people were coming out in the 2000s and the 2010s, that enabled the visibility of LGBT people and the obvious investment that people had in that issue to become transparent. But the reason that I mention that is I don't think the same video made today would have the same impact. Right? And so, you know, that moment was a really wonderful cultural moment in Australia that was part of this signaling that this movement for marriage was unstoppable, right? And we eventually, of course, won that fight. But I think in the current information environment, it's very, very hard for things like that to really catch hold. And as we've talked about a lot, Melissa, you know, that the environment we're in now is one where Even the social media era, right, is becoming highly fragmented, right? You've got a lot more mis- and disinformation that's spread. The platforms themselves make it harder for progressive, pluralistic, liberal values to spread, which is obviously very hard for an issue like climate change, which is premised on those values, right? And so it would be hard to pull that off today. Now, that's not a way of saying that we should give up, right? And in fact, I think part of the message that I would have is that as we think about the way the information environment is evolving, we need to get on top of what that means for how we persuade people on climate. So to point to two things that are new, right? Like we all understand social media and the creator ecosystem, and we need to get really, really good at spreading our ideas there. But the next frontier will be on in the chat bot arena. So as more and more people become deeply, intimately dependent on their chat bots for their political views, for advice to shape their worldviews, the answers that those chat bots give on climate change you know, will become critical to how opinions are formed and whether those chatbots draw on the mis and disinformation or draw on the agendas of the fossil fuel industry or they draw on facts is a critical swing factor. And we can make sure through our own movement building and advocacy that we pressure those AI companies to ensure their models are not biased and are pro science. So that's the first thing. And I think the second thing is there is going to be a massive information war around AI generated content. So, you know, the percentage of AI generated content that we see in our feeds is going to grow to a majority of the content that we see in the next couple of years. And at the moment, we talk about AI slop, and there's a lot of AI slop. But actually, the other dynamic is that that content is going to get very sophisticated and very good and

It persuasive. It will tell beautiful stories. It will pull our heartstrings. Now, that's a huge opportunity for climate campaigners, even though I'm sure we would all love to live in a world where there was no AI generated content. That is the world that we're about to live in. But it's also important that we lead in that because the fossil fuel industry and the opponents of climate action will sure as hell be using these same tools and are working already to spread a narrative about climate change that will depress those kinds of dynamics that you speak of.

Yeah, indeed, we're already seeing that kind of influence on the LLMs. We're seeing fake institutions, studies. scientists being seated with studies that attract LLMs to influence their narratives. And I'm, Evan, I'm worried, I'm wondering if you're worried about this information environment. I mean, you achieved what you achieved, but there is backlash and the disinformation and the hate speech that is directed at the LGBTQI community is only growing. I mean, I know that we're supposed to be talking about climate, but it is, It relates to how we build movements for good in all dimensions. Are you worried? And what would you suggest to do to preserve what you have achieved in the marriage space?

Well, I think, first of all, I think Jeremy is putting his finger on a really important dimension of the work that we need to do and the attention we need to pay. And I would add to that that persuasion, which is, of course, a very important thing we need to do, along with organizing and mobilizing, Persuasion comes partly through the communications, which is the message, the messenger, the message delivery, how we reach people in the ways Jeremy just outlined. and all that work that needs to happen. So we, whether on climate or on defending human rights or defending liberal democracy or whatever it be, we have to engage that work. But persuasion also happens, not just through communicating, but through changing circumstances, changing the realities. So when a nation moves to the freedom to marry, it inspires action in other countries. When we see a political victory on climate change, it empowers people to work on women's rights, etc. It's not just the communicating we do around the thing itself, it's the circumstances and the work we need to do. And so to me, the real answer to your question is, and this is particularly true when you say that 90% of the people already are inclined to be supportive, which was not a dynamic we had. When you have that kind of field, your problem is not primarily persuasion. Your problem is most likely, and in this case, specifically to your question, it is political dysfunction. We need to make governments work for us. We need to provide a check on the power and wealth grabs of oligarchic forces, big economy economic forces, those who don't want AI to give an honest answer, but who want to load the machine to give a fossil fuel oriented answer or what have you. So part of our work needs to be the persuasion and the engagement and the conversation and encouraging people to not stew in some kind of wallow of worry in their internet bubbles, et cetera, but to break through that and have conversations and get back to work and connect with people and use the other tools that are available to them that's that's part of our work and the other part of the work has to be reclaiming political power it has to be engaging and claiming political power because without that the forces that are currently that Jeremy's pointing to that are unregulated by and large that are tearing down the other safeguards and so-called guardrails and so on are gonna create the world in which we live but we don't have to let that happen and you know, I've lived now through, as many of us have, several technological eras. And I believe people like Jeremy when they say this one coming is going to be a big change and it's going to really be something. And it becomes a little even harder. Everybody talks about AI now, but how many of us really know anything about, you know? So I feel like, yes, technology has to be engaged and regulated and meaningfully deployed. But that requires the political engagement that doesn't require just figuring out how to understand AI, but also requires talking to your neighbors, donating to candidates, working across divisions and creating the society that we want which will then have to regulate and Engage and use the new tools that come to us as human beings just as we had to learn to use a mimeograph machine Just as we had to learn to use a fax machine just as we had to learn to use reading Which wasn't the whole story of you know human history? I believe experts like Jeremy when they say this one's a big one and we're gonna have to really figure it out but in to make the players that are gonna figure it out, figure it out, we have to use the other tools too, and not just be sitting around waiting for some AI salvation.

Thank you. I've already gone over time, but I want to give Jeremy the last word. Are you hopeful? I mean, it sounds like we're up against so much. Yes, we've been through all of these technological challenges before. Yes, we have overcome. We need political power to work for the people and not to exploit people. What are you hopeful about?

Yeah, well, look, I'm always hopeful fundamentally about the capacity of people to organize for change. I mean, that's what I've been doing my whole life and as has Evan. And I think being smart about that, as Evan said, is critical. I do also think that a world in which a lot of the toxicity, the political polarization, the hate that social media has fostered, like there is an opportunity in some of these new waves to actually depolarize a little bit, right? There's a massive concentration of power that AI represents, but also just the pure mechanics, for example, of that chatbot experience tends to depolarize a little bit and take people down. And it doesn't create this idea of the most provocative thing gets the algorithm going, induces you, and then provokes you. There are different psychological dynamics at play, which I think could actually be helpful. So I think we need to figure out what we can harness And we also need to make sure that all of the fights we're in, we're in these fights on climate, we're on these fights on LGBT rights, you name it, we're also in a larger fight for regulation of and reining in this concentrated tech power. And I think that's the challenge is that that's a harder movement to fight. It's a little more technical. It's a little harder for people to get their head around. But if we don't do that work, it's going to be hard for us to make progress on any of these issues. And so that's also the kind of macro context that we face.

Thank you so much, Jeremy. Thank you, Evan. And we'll do it all together. We'll join forces with all of you, too, in making our information environment better, in creating movements that are unstoppable for all of the issues that benefit humankind. Thank you.

Hello and welcome back to the SDG Media Zone. Our next session is about to start, so please take your seats. Happy to introduce the next panel. And Mr. Tedros, if you want to take the stage, we can start the session. And I'm going to hand it over to Samira Hussein from BBC News. Thank you so much.

Good morning. I am delighted to welcome Dr. Tedros to the stage, and it is an exceptionally timely discussion given the current Ebola outbreak happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And before, rather than a lengthy introduction, I just wanna get right into it because I think Ebola has been such a issue globally, but perhaps hasn't been getting as much attention. I'm wondering how would you characterize the response so far to the outbreak?

Yeah, thank you. This Ebola outbreak, as you know, is a result of Bundibugyo type, and the Bundibugyo actually was discovered in 2007. So, the first outbreak was in Uganda in a village called Bundibugyo. That's why the name comes also from that. And then the second outbreak was in 2012 in Isiro province in DRC. So this is basically the. So after 2012, 14 years later, we have another one in Ituri province in DRC. So because of that, you know, test kits not optimized. vaccine treatments not available, of course, now under trial. And the virus also got a head start because it was not detected for some time. So I think it circulated for some months. And as I said earlier, because of the head start, unprecedented speed actually was showing and still, and we're still playing a catch up. And it's a very serious one, still concern. But the concern not only comes from a head start and so on, but this outbreak is happening in the middle of an armed conflict, active armed conflict. And there is also, because of the armed conflict, mobility, destabilization, and due to the armed conflict, there are other challenges. So that makes it a bit complicated and affects the response. But the positive side is, since we declared it as fake, it's already four months now, it's contained within the DRC. So that's positive within Eastern DRC. Of course, few cases cross to Uganda, but swiftly controlled. That's a plus. And then the number of cases is also on the decline now, especially in Ituri, the epicenter, although there is an increase in North Kivu, but the overall is some modest decline. That's also positive. Number of recoveries is on the increase. The contact tracing is improving. So the response is growing from strength to strength, but we are not out of woods yet. But the key problem still to make more gains and progress is addressing the serious community mistrust that we have. And we're trying to do that because the government leadership is important and community ownership is even more important because the partners role like WHO is support. Otherwise, the two are critical, the government leadership and community ownership. Even in terms of community trust, we see improvements now, but it still continues to be a serious problem.

I'm wondering what we can take from the international response to Ebola thus far, and what does that mean in terms of global preparedness for any kind of pandemics?

So on any kind of pandemics, the preparedness, of course, I had, I have the same question in many platforms. I say the preparedness is a no and yes. Maybe I bring, I put the no first because still, you know, more of a no than a yes. The no is because As you know, the world is not prepared and its priorities also shifted since COVID. We have what you call this cycle of panic and neglect. During COVID, the whole world was panicking, so there was a lot of investment, but as soon as COVID was declared over, the priorities shifted and the investment decreased. Of course, you wouldn't expect that level of investment to continue. But it reduced significantly. So the investment that's happening now is not really good enough to prepare the world for the next pandemic. And next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. So we need to continue to invest. But the alarming part in terms of, especially in best of the best. is not only it shifted, but it's shifting to investments in defense. I attended the Munich Security Conference last year, and many countries from developed world were announcing an increase in funding from military expenditure, of course, from 2% to 4%, from 3% to 5% or over. That's a lot of money. And as you know, the military expenditure in 2005 was around 2.7 trillion US dollars, while what we are investing in health security is actually very, very, very, very small. And at that time, I asked the foreign ministers and defense ministers, you know, what's happening? And said, "Oh, we have concerns, so we have to invest." Of course, I can understand that, but the health security part is very important because a virus that could affect all of us can emerge anytime and have even more consequences than a conventional war. So what I suggested to them is, I cannot say, you know, you don't have concerns, but I can ask you to keep a balance because we are still vulnerable. And a respiratory infection could emerge and wreak havoc. And unless we invest and strike a balance, you know, we could regret it. So still, I don't see increased investment. And that's why I say in terms of preparedness, it's a no. But the yes part is based on COVID lessons, there are some progresses we have made, a very modest one. For instance, one of the critical things in emergency preparedness is the capacity at national level, because we are as strong as the weakest link. So the capacity in each country is really crucial. And that's why, together with the Global Fund, we have established the Pandemic Fund to support countries based on a peer review mechanism to fill the gaps they identify. So that's very critical. And then, of course, there are other COVID lessons, like increasing the improving surveillance, because there were surveillance weaknesses. And the pandemic intelligence hub is established to fix that. And there was a problem in sharing samples, and we have the bio hub in order to share samples as soon as possible. Equity was a problem because sharing, you know, diagnostic treatment or vaccines was considered as charity, but it's not. So we have established the mRNA technology transfer hub in Cape Town and the biomanufacturing in Korea to improve local production so the equity issue could be addressed. But more importantly is the pandemic agreement, which was negotiated and agreed in May 2025. Now there is the PABIS annex of the pandemic agreement is being negotiated. That will help us in preparing and responding in a very coordinated way, and it will improve the governance. But still the improvement is modest, and countries will hopefully show more commitment.

I'm wondering if the investment changes that you talked about had a direct impact in terms of the response to Ebola.

Of course, on Ebola, can you rephrase it maybe?

Well, you were just mentioning about the decreases in investments in the post-COVID era, that there was a lot of attention that was paid to the pandemic at that time. Once it was declared over, there was less attention being paid to this kind of preparedness. Did that lessening of investments have an impact in terms of the response to Ebola.

Yeah, it has, because we're responding to the Ebola outbreak after it happened. But before that, especially if you see in early 2025, there was a significant funding cut, and ODA declined by more than 40%. And that affected many countries, including the DRC. Whether it's having it had an impact or not is not even a debatable. It's true. So that's also what we're saying. You know, to make the world safer, we have to invest today during peacetime. It's not when it happens. That's why I said when something hits, there is panic, we tend to react instead of preparing in advance. But when there is a period where we can prepare, there is actually reducing the investment in health in general or health security. So that should stop. But that's what we have seen just even from 2025. And it has affected Ebola and it will continue to affect other health issues as well.

Forgive me, this is a little bit of housekeeping. I see that the timer is saying zero, but I do believe I might have 10 more minutes. Okay, great. I do want to, you know, when we're talking about investment, there has been a significant change in terms of investment from the United States, and it is withdrawn from the World Health Organization. And overall, we've seen a lot of funding cuts by different countries when it comes to international aid. I'm wondering about the finances of the WHO and how prepared the organization is going forward.

Yeah.

So on the US and WHO, of course, you know, the decision for the US to withdraw from WHO is unfortunate, and that decision is a lose-lose. the US lose and the rest of the world lose because in health and health security, especially solidarity is important, cooperation is important. And that's what we're missing now. So I hope the US will reconsider. But when I say US hopefully will reconsider, it's not about the money. I'll come later to this, but the money issue is already addressed. It's about solidarity. It's about cooperation. It's about the US leadership because US has excellent institutions. So that's the most important. So it's not about money because some people say, oh, you don't have money. So that's why you're asking. No. In terms of money, what we have done is we designed a new, we reduced our budget, designed a new structure. We implemented that. We have taken measures. Of course, we had to say bye to some colleagues. But compared to other institutions from which US hasn't withdrawn, the number of people that were separate from our organization is actually less. Because we started a finance reform without even, you know, this issue, the US issue. And the finance reform was based on the risk that we identified some years ago. that reliance on few traditional donors is a major risk for WHO and of course other organizations. So we decided to diversify our revenue base and the assessed contribution or membership fees, the best equalizer or that really broadens the donor base. And our member states, based on our request, agreed to double their membership fee. and to make it 50 to 60% of the core budget of the organization. That's significant. It prevents shocks like now, and also it ensures independence of the organization because we can use this flexible money that comes from all countries to use it based on country priorities, based on our priorities. So because of that, we had some resources that minimize the impact of the US withdrawal. So if you see that our budget now, when I started in 2017, it was 3.4 billion for a biennium. Now it's around 4.2 billion. It's an increase, actually. And then the 2026, 2027 biennium budget, 95% of it is already secured. And then I can go on and on. So in terms of financial stability, we are stable. And the measures we have taken stabilize the organization further. And we are moving forward.

Dr. Tedros, we're running out of time, but ever so briefly, I do want to ask you, since we're talking about the United States, currently there are outbreaks of measles in this country. The World Health Organization has worked over more than two decades and has brought measles down to 88%. How concerned are you about these current outbreaks here in the United States?

Yeah, I'm concerned. Not only the US, by the way, measles is raging in other countries as well. Not only I'm concerned, but I'm disappointed as well because maybe I can share with you my own story. My younger brother died around the age of between two to three. And from what my mother tells me, the symptoms are very close to measles. At that time, even the advent of vaccine was not there. This is in 1960s. So kids could die then because there was no technology. But now, when there is vaccine, when there is technology effective and safe, kids dying, it's unacceptable. So I think countries should do everything to protect their kids. And it makes me sad. I'm even sad about my brother's death at that time. But now there is no reason for children to die.

Dr. Tedros, we've run out of time. A fascinating discussion. Thank you very much for taking this.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you.

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the SDG Media Zone. We're live from the UN headquarters in New York. And I will pass to our moderator, Molly Taft, with WIRED for our next session.

Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. So we're here to talk about cities and about half the world's population now lives in cities and that number is projected to go up to 70% ish by the middle of the century. So we're really talking about real opportunities and real challenges when it comes to climate action. And we're kind of in a really significant time of those concurrent challenges and opportunities. And I'm so happy to have these three leaders here today, Anne Hidalgo, former mayor of Paris, Eric Garcetti, former mayor of Los Angeles, and Camila Assis from Sao Paulo. And I'd like to start with some topics that I have been kind of facing throughout climate week, and maybe some of you all have as well, these two topics that keep coming up. And first is the super El Nino. Forming in the Pacific that threatens to compound on the extreme weather we've already seen so much of and really threatens to raise global temperatures significantly by next year. And then the 2nd is also data centers, which as a tech reporter is near and dear to my heart. you know, and the the challenges these present to the grid, the increased energy, the increased fossil energy that is put being put on the grid to meet the challenges of AI. And also, you know, some of the the citizen response to these data centers going up, folks have a lot of concerns, they have a lot of questions. Eric, you and I were chatting about this backstage, these two topics. I'm wondering what kind of conversations you've been having specifically around city responses to these two challenges and some examples you've seen recently of of leadership in these areas.

Well, thank you, Molly, and great to be with everybody. Great to be with my sister mayor, Ann Hidalgo. It's wonderful to be with my colleague from Sao Paulo as well. This is not abstract. This is real, and this is today. In Los Angeles, in Long Beach, we have the second wave of a super wave from El Nino literally coming to our coast as we speak that's been destroying homes, that's been looking at the erosion of our coastline. And last month, August was the hottest month on human record besides July 2023, the hottest August ever and the second hottest month we've ever experienced, which meant that people suffered, people died. We can't account for how many heat deaths there are, but this literally is life and death. And so the urgency of today, I come with both a message of extreme urgency, but also hope because On one hand, you feel like the climate work is on the defense, certainly in this country with this administration that people are backing off of commitments. And yet we know the Global Covenant of Mayors and through C40 Cities, which we both represent here, that cities are actually ahead of the Paris goals, unlike the countries of the world, all of which are not there. And data centers is a great example of the power of subnational governments. So C40 Cities launched with the Global Covenant of Mayors and Climate Mayors, the first data center compact that establishes the standards that say no, unless you play by our rules, which means no gas powered plants, no dirty coal energy. In order for us to have a slightly easier AI search or query, that we have to make sure that water, heat are contained, or we draw the line in saying that we will not in our cities around the world, now representing over 200 million citizens, global citizens, and I guarantee you a month from now, that will double again. saying, collectively, you cannot play us off each other. We have standards and we're not willing to just sacrifice our communities and the earth for your goals.

Yeah, that's so interesting what you all are doing on that globally as this issue really continues to expand. Speaking of global issues in cities, Ambassador Hidalgo, during your time as mayor of Paris, you championed so many areas of climate action and core to the SDGs. urban nature, finance, gender equity, and you're now the global ambassador for the Global Covenant of Mayors. I'm wondering if you can share some examples of some of the work you championed in Paris and how you're using this experience now to garner support for other cities looking to replicate some of that.

Thank you so much. I'm very happy also to be here with my brother, my friends, because now it's like a family. When one mayor meet another mayor, they are talking about things of mayors, and it is about citizens. And this community of mayors helped me a lot when I was mayor of Paris, because of course, as mayor, we faced a lot of challenges. And Maybe one thing about my experience, and I want to share that. When I was mayor of Paris, I bring the opportunity with the COVID crisis to accelerate the transformation of the city. about, for example, the bicycle lanes and this new infrastructure. This infrastructure was for me very, very important for the citizens because in my objective, in my goal, in my proposal to have less air pollution, we needed to change the model of the mobility in the city and the bicycle lanes were for for us, for the city, very important. And the COVID gave me the opportunity to change that very quickly. And it was an accelerator. The second, and we share that together, the Olympic Games, because we win together, the Olympic Games, we win together. We had this competition between our cities, but also not just competition, also collaboration. And we together. And for me, hosting the games in 2024 was also an opportunity to accelerate and I align the objective, the target of the Paris Agreement with the target of the Olympic Games in my city. I think the mayors have this opportunity to bring one crisis and accelerate the transformation. Second, I think because now I'm a global ambassador at the Global Government of Mayors, the same family that the C40, we are based in Brussels and we have in this organization 14,000 cities, smaller cities than the C40 network and around the world. I think what is important now for us in this agenda and this climate agenda for the mayors is to bring the discussion, the conversation, to bring the mayors at the conversation about the climate goals in the Paris Agreement. And I'm working in a very interesting platform. This platform was launched and was born in Dubai for the COP28, the CHAMP initiative. It is an initiative for the multi-level, multi-actor action. We need it because today the multilateralism is in trouble and we need to open the door to the actor and the mayor are the actor, essential actor for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. And this initiative is very interesting because we have today 78 countries involved in this initiative and the cities. And what we are trying to do for the next COP, for the next stage, is to have a conversation together. And this conversation needs to bring the cities at the right level. They need to have direct access to the finance. They need to be present in the discussion, in the negotiation about the climate change because they are facing directly with the citizens the impact of the climate change and they are also the level of the implementation of our goals for the climate, for the Paris Agreement.

Yeah, that's I'm glad you mentioned kind of working all cohesively together, winning together, and that takes me over to Ms. Assis. You know, we know for a climate transition, we can't leave anyone behind. It needs to be a just transition, and that's part of the challenges. And I'm wondering if you have examples from Sao Paulo, like how you all are facilitating this transition financially to make sure no one is left behind, facilitating green jobs. What does it look like for you?

Yes, first of all, I would like to take the opportunity to talk on behalf of Sao Paulo. It's a pleasure to be with these two personalities that I admire as an internationalist. I have to say that I'm a little bit nervous, so I have a clue.

Great, you're doing great.

But I'm very glad you asked me this question because I think Sao Paulo is making a strong effort to connect economic development, climate action, and social inclusion. So from the perspective for Sao Paulo, the ecological transition cannot be only about reducing emissions or adapting our city. It also needs great opportunities for people, especially for those who are already facing great social and economic vulnerability. A good example that I have to say, it's a pilot project that we are going to launch next year that counts with a grant with Mayors Migration Council. It's a project that's called in Portuguese, Novo Solo, in English, New Soil. And it brings together three important issues like migrant inclusion, descent work, and urban climate resilience. The idea is quite simple, but makes a lot of change, is to help migrants, especially those in a vulnerable situation, access training and job opportunities in areas that are important, Sao Paulo ecological transition. We have a big transformation of our bus fleet as well, so we have to grab these opportunities to improve and connect not just this ecological transition, but providing opportunities to people access green jobs. As a huge city, we also have initiatives that promote innovation, but we are aware that this kind of innovation can be limited to people that have access to money, to grants. So we have also a program that's called Hubby Green Sampa, that's a public incubator that provides grant to green solutions to people that have a startup and want to make great solutions to the city. And other thing that I would like to end my, the part of my speech is that when we think about Sao Paulo, we think about the city that is so much populated, but we have like 32% of our territory is rural. So we are also working with like producers. I think that Paris has incredible work that so many times we take to exchange this kind of experience to make the whole system work. So we also bring them to the table.

That's wonderful. Thank you. And speaking of working within the specific fabric of your city and taking lessons from what your city might

Like, Eric, I'm interested, when you were mayor of LA, which is a really cool city and faces a lot of really unique challenges, you saw it through COVID, you know, implementation of LA's Green New Deal. You were acting and during the first Trump administration, you know, when cities had to take action, potentially without the help of a federal government. I'm wondering, as you're looking at Cities Acting Now, what lessons can they learn from your leadership, from other city leadership? What lessons can federal governments learn about how cities act during crises and how cities take opportunities for green transitions?

So I'll tell you a quick story from COVID. a succeeded and as chair she's like my my sister that I just follow in her footsteps she had the Olympics I'm gonna have the Olympics she was the chair I was the chair whatever she's doing it's just a preview of my life so it's very exciting let me tell you a little brother of you exactly and My second Zoom ever before we knew what Zooms really were, like now we just take them for granted as part of our bodies. We clicked on and I brought together all the mayors, 'cause C40 is the only association of mayors of the top 100 cities of the world on any topic. It happens to be on climate, but there's no other mayor's club. And so with this crisis coming and knowing that things like germs and climate ignore borders. I said, I called, I kind of put the bat signal out in comic book terms and saw how many mayors, and we had over 60 of the 100 mayors get on across every time zone of the world. And it was amazing because the now late mayor of Seoul started talking about drive-through testing, that you could be tested for something in a car. We're like, that sounds crazy, mind blown. We had the mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala, talk about, because remember the peak of COVID early on was in Northern Italy, about how to arrange beds in the hallways of your hospital so that fewer people would die. Very sober, very important, immediate stuff. And we all got off the call and started doing those things. And our successor, our current chair of C40, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who often gets some shout outs here at the UN, he said something that He met with his then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, if we remember him, and he was describing what C40 was doing and how mayors were implementing this right away. Wartime leadership, the way generals on a battlefield, see a problem, try something, if that doesn't work, try something else, but you have to act. And Boris Johnson turned to his cabinet and said, "Why aren't we doing this stuff?" And they said, "Sir, we're preparing a report. It'll be ready in a week or two. Then you can read the report, then you can start talking to presidents and prime ministers and other leaders." And It struck him that national and international, multilateral, is at a glacial pace compared to what mayors do, because we literally have to save lives. In LA, it was the scariest thing I ever had to do, but to shut down restaurants. We were the first big city in America to shut down. We were a week ahead of New York, which was a little ahead on the infection, but the data showed that we had half the deaths per capita. So the lesson learned is in a crisis, and certainly we face a crisis with climate, accelerate, collaborate, innovate, and also relentlessly communicate. And really, the last point I'll make is don't cede the power you have before you exercise it. When Trump in the first administration said, I'm gonna be the only leader and we're gonna be the only country to withdraw from Paris, literally the only one, instead of crying in a corner, climate mayors with this group that I've mentioned, that's the, Republican, independent, and Democratic mayors in 47 states, but we only had about a dozen or so members then, we got on the phone. And by the end of that day when he made that announcement, we had over 50 folks signed on saying that if he's out, we're in. We will implement Paris in our cities. That got up to 200 by the end of the month, and it peaked at over 360 mayors in all but three states in America across party lines. And when we went to the COP in Glasgow, I was the only leader that wasn't a national leader allowed to be on the stage the first two days as we presented on behalf of our organization and 1000 cities that we pledged carbon neutrality. The UN made the calculation that's the equivalent of the fifth largest country in the world. And we're actually doing it, unlike the empty words of a lot of nations that are falling short, we're actually doing it.

I think that. is a really nice note to end on. We don't always get those at Climate Week, so. Thank you all for being here with me today, and I really appreciate our conversation. Thank you. Thank you so much.

About climate action.

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the SDG Media Zone. We're live from the UN headquarters here in New York. so excited for our next panel. So I'll just pass it right over to our moderator, Katie Morton to introduce.

Hi, everybody. I'm Katie Morton. I'm a licensed therapist. And I've been creating educational mental health content on YouTube since 2011. And today we are here to talk about trusted messengers, which I think is a really important term, we'll define that and talk about what that means. But the goal is to talk about how story moves community into climate action. And I have the pleasure of being joined by Graham and Jamie, I'll let you to introduce yourselves, tell people the work that you're doing.

Hey, everybody. My name is Graham Zimmerman. I'm a professional mountain climbing athlete and work for an organization called Protect Our Winners, which is focused on bringing the outdoor rec community into the climate fight. And we primarily do that through trusted messengers work, which is basically, in our case, working with professional athletes who have a lot of influence in our community and working with them to bring our broader community, which in the United States is over 100 million folks who get outside every year, working on bringing those folks into climate action. And it's something that's working really well, and I'm really excited to share what we've learned, what we're working on, and I think what you can bring into your work in this panel today.

Excellent. Well, while Graham goes out and climbs mountains, I just sit in front of a laptop and type a lot, like many of you. But my name is Jamie Han. I was one of the co-founders of 350.org, which grew into one of the largest international climate campaigns in the world. And then for the last five years, have run an organization called Fossil Free Media that incubates campaigns really at the intersection of communications, policy, and action. So our entire MO is trying to figure out what are the ways to take this big global crisis like climate change and translate that down into language and stories that people can really understand. So that challenge of finding the right messengers who can really not just persuade people, but mobilize people in their communities to take action on these issues is our obsession. And it's been great to work with people like Graham and Christy, who I know is stuck in traffic, but may join us later dear friend, we're all scattered across the city, but these are the kind of stories and conversations that I think are really key to making progress right now.

Amazing. I love to define terms before we, so we make sure we're all on the same page. When it comes to being a trusted messenger, I think personally, and I'd love to hear your takes too, that it's something that's built over time. It's not something that we can fabricate, it's not something we can force, and it means that we've also been consistent. As a therapist, I think consistency is really healing, and I think it's also really important when we're trying to information and to change people's minds. What do each of you have to add to what a trusted messenger means to you?

Yeah, I think in kind of by my definition, trusted messengers are folks who have some level of celebrity, who have some level of influence, who people pay attention to and who people trust. And then they also have, they have a platform. And so if we're talking about how we bring trusted messengers into the climate fight, it's working with folks who are trusted by their communities and working on bringing them into how they can be communicating on climate, both for persuasion and action, as you brought up, Jamie. And so that's really, it's something that, in terms of sociology, the studies really really show that this is a powerful way to drive impact and it's something that at Protect Our Winters and a lot of our work we've seen really work well for getting people to step into the actions that we need to take on this crisis.

I think Graham said it really well. We do a lot of work online with content creators, influencers who have trust with the communities that they do. I want to bring up another form of it, how do we design our work and campaigns so they're really accessible for people at the local level to take part in. So much of our work at the UN or on climate is revolving around these big global goals that if you're a kindergarten teacher or a family doctor, it's hard to know how you fit in. And yet those are the people that are trusted messengers in their communities, especially in an era where there's so much disinformation online and it feels like the world is spinning out of control. Often we turn to people in our community, the teacher, our local physician, the firefighter. And yet, we don't always do a good job of designing our efforts, our public engagement plans, to really empower those people to be communicators in their own communities, and to really lead those efforts on the ground. And so I think that's the sweet spot we're always trying to go for. How can you have a big global project and global goal, but make it really accessible at the local level, and then find those messengers who can speak one-on-one in their neighborhood, and then ideally have a big platform online as well to reach even more people through the internet to really mobilize folks across board.

Jamie, I super appreciate that. And I think it's worth adding that in the moment that we're in, institutional trust is on a massive decline, but we're finding that trusted messengers continue to be a really powerful way to move people. And so it's more important now than ever. And thinking about trusted messengers in a really broad framework is really important because you're exactly right. A school teacher is absolutely a trusted messenger and somebody we need to be working with.

Yeah, I love that and I agree. I think when we talk about messaging, a lot of times I've even learned over the years that the way to actually disseminate information isn't by just talking about research, data, that tends to kind of people glaze over or it can feel like we're talking down to them. I find the best way to make the most impact with my audience and just communicating with people in general is to share stories because those really resonate, right? Then you can kind of put yourself in that person's position. I'm also a crier and if I watch a documentary where someone's sharing their personal story, that really resonates And then you're like, oh, that's so impactful for them. Wow, I can feel that empathy, right? Tell me a little bit about how stories have helped shape your communications, how you feel like maybe you've moved the needle a little bit, or if there has been an impactful story, please do share.

Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, I think so much, it's funny, like we started an organization named after parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere, 350.org. And yet at the same time, the thing that made it work and grow is because it was actually all rooted with people, and really with young people around the world. And it was those emotional stories of a young woman in Iraq who was gonna set up the first climate network there. Young women in Ethiopia who got every school in Addis Ababa to do a green program and turn people out for demonstrations. So those local stories really make a huge impact. And you see that now, like just the other day, I was looking on Instagram and there was a Texas rancher talking about the impact of a big AI data center on his water and his land. A deep conservative person who probably doesn't support a lot of things I support, but clearly has trust in his community. And you could see it in the comments and the engagement that were happening there. So I guess the challenge I would bring is that I think there's an opportunity to empower more of those messengers in this space. Look, I love getting to see Leonardo DiCaprio stand up at the UN and look really handsome and give his usual speech. But I'd love to see more moms up there. I'd love to see more school teachers up there. I'd love to see more regular people who might not have that celebrity. But have an ability to communicate to people where they feel like, oh, that's someone I can recognize, and that's someone like me. And I think the advantage with social media now is you don't necessarily need a celebrity to reach a lot of people, that people have built really genuine followings by being themselves, by being a mom, by being a physician, by being someone at the local level. So finding those people, empowering those people, working with them to get these messages across, I think is so key.

That's, I like total agreement with everything that's being shared here. And I think just two things that I'll add. One, stories are not different than science. We need to be, have stories that have a strong foundation of truth and science underneath them. We need to like, like we're not talking about leaving behind the science. We're talking about the tool that we utilize in order to move people that is built on top of that truth and that scientific evidence. And For me, what that means is that means that we need to build the right teams around these trusted messengers that we're working with. So at Protect Our Winters, we've got all these athletes that we work with, and we've got creatives that we work with. We also have a team of scientists. And what we work on is bringing those folks together so that we can have these athletes bringing their stories from the big mountains of the world or from these big races and places where they're seeing a lot of climate impacts, such as on fields where people are getting sick from heat or like in big races where people are being impacted by smoke, those are stories that bring people in, that people can relate to, that create common ground, that will bring people together towards that collective action. And then we make sure that they're working with the scientists that are on the front lines of this fight in a way that ensures that all the stories that they're sharing, all the actions that they're nudging people towards are really based in what we need to actually take on the climate crisis. And that's fundamentally kind of like how we build these teams, how we construct these trusted messengers in a way that really guide us towards the future that we all need.

I think when it comes to working with trusted messengers, as I see myself as one of those people, it can be tricky sometimes engaging with organizations, even if you believe in the same message and you believe in what they're doing. I personally will get like, here's your creator brief, and it's like, here are your seven talking points for your 60 second ad read, and you're like, how? And then they're like, make it in your voice. How? So I would love to ask each of you, how have you engaged with those trusted people and how would you recommend others do? And Jamie, you can start.

Yeah, I think that's a great point because we've been perpetrators of that at sometimes too. It's like an organization that wants to get our propaganda out there and like, we got people that, you gotta say, make polluters pay or whatever it is. And we've really learned that that isn't the right approach. And so we've gone from like that. And I think a lot of organizations still do this, a kind of pay to play content creator model to really running fellowship programs for people and say, we want to provide you a stipend to help you have a better stream of income or support you in doing this work. And then as Graham said, really creating a community. to give people support, information, have a dialogue about how could we shape this issue together. We, as like now, you know, old school activists, have so much to learn from people who have perfected, like yourself, ways of communicating online. And so I think we need to be really humble as we come into this space. We can learn a lot from people who have built large followings, who are trusted, and really just try and empower them to do the work and then provide that community and support. Because it is hard. I mean, you can speak to this better than I can. When you put yourself out there, you get a lot of backlash. You're going to get negative comments. People are going to come after you. And so making sure that we support those people and give them the tools they need to then go out and do what they do best of communicating so clearly, I think, is really key.

Absolutely, all of that. And if we think about this from a traditional organizing lens, like utilizing laddering folks up through actions, like you bring them in and then you ladder them up through actions until they're doing the thing that you really need them to do. And oftentimes the trusted messengers, or if we look at this through the lens of professional athletes, they're brought in at the very end of a marketing plan and, okay, we have the whole plan, we have all the talking points, we have all the things we're gonna do, and now, Jamie, Yeah, go sell it. I'm going to shoot a video and put it in your own voice.

Do it hanging from a cliff, Grant.

Yeah, do it hanging from a cliff. I'll bring you up there, don't worry. We'll have a great time. What we're finding more and more is A, that taking the time to train folks, to recruit them, to bring them in in ways that allow for them to develop these strengths that we ultimately need them to have and to build these teams around them is really important. Also, these are people who are leaders. They're people who in their community, they're people who have agency in the actions that they take. And because of that, actually bringing them into the design process of campaigns is a really good way to A, make sure that we have those insights that we need to reach the communities we're working with, but also it creates this buy-in with these trusted messengers so that when we ultimately launch the thing, it's like they have skin in the game, they have investment, they see themselves within it, and it drives that much more engagement and it makes it that much more authentic, and authenticity is really what all this comes down to. institutional trust is on a decline because authenticity is really hard for institutions, but authenticity is high with trusted messengers. And so that's, it's like taking that time, having that intention of building these people up, bringing them in early, and then deploying together is something that we've found a lot of success with.

Yeah, I love that. And I like the idea of working together. I feel like that's something that I think gets missed a lot is that it's, it's like a, go sell it. And then they're like, hey, do this, put in your own. And it's like, quick, and we need this in this month or whatever. But I think starting from the ground with the people, with your trusted messengers really helps shape a better conversation, a more authentic conversation, and can actually move the needle. I always love to talk a little bit about actual takeaways and tools. And I'm curious if either of you kind of has best practices or something that you found is like kind of your key in to working with people like this or disseminating information in a very helpful, trusted way. Do you have any, and I know I'm putting you on the spot, this was not on the brief, by the way. But any top tips of ways that people, if they are wanting to do this engagement, how do they start those conversations? What are the best ways, do you think, to interact? Or how do you curate those types of impactful stories?

I'll jump in and like the group of folks that we're working with at PAL, it is a big group of people who get outside, but we're working with them in kind of a specific slice. And so when we talk about these athletes, having a look at what they need, what we can do to help them, and how we can offer what becomes less of a transactional, more like a transformational relationship becomes really important. And some of those things can be really simple. So in the athlete space, if you're doing really well, if you're climbing mountains and winning races or whatever, then you get a lot of attention. But if you get injured, people tend to kind of like leave you behind, including sponsors and brands and the media. And that's a moment when an organization like us, we can step in and be like, hey, Jamie, like normally you're winning races, but right now you've got a sprained ankle. Like, can I send you a coffee? Like, what do you need? And it's like a really easy way for us to build relationships with folks and show up for them when they need it, which creates reciprocity, which creates like relational organizing, which like ultimately guides us towards where we wanna go. And identifying those places where we can show up for these folks, where we can show up for these communities when they need it, allows for us to build those relationships and allow for us to all take action together. That's one thing that's pretty simple that we found to be really effective. And that's different for different communities, but I think that any community that you're organizing within, there are these pathways where you can show up for people and meet people where they're at with what they need, and then build those relationships that guide towards that training, that guide towards that co-design of campaigns, and ultimately towards these actions that will bring communities into the fight in a way that will guide us towards the.

I really agree with that, and, you know, it's the Thursday of climate week, and my feet do hurt, and I could use a coffee for sure, so I'll take you up. Trying to really strengthen communities around this is key. We do a lot of work to bring messengers onto Zoom calls together to actually meet up in person. I think the programs that the UN has had to bring young people in to support them to learn about the process, and more importantly, just to meet each other and have fun together is really key. And so investing in those without even a prescriptive outcome, but really the goal of building that trust in community, I think is really important. Finally, we really try and connect creators who have platforms with people on the front lines who are feeling the impacts of climate change or pollution or engaging in their communities. We did a lot of work in the Gulf South of this country trying to hold back some of the petrochemical build out. And we brought creators from Colorado and from California who had big followings down to the Gulf to go meet with fishermen who were living there and seeing their catches dry up because of oil and gas development, community members who were seeing cancer rates skyrocket in their community. And it was really meaningful, I think, for the creators. And they created great content out of it, but more importantly, I think they really deepened their own sense of commitment as well. And we've seen them to go on to do a lot of that work as it happens. So those sorts of partnerships are really key. The final thing I'd say is going back to that design issue, where so many of our I think Graham said it well, like institutions are losing trust in many ways. And especially with AI and all of this, like people don't know what's real. I think people are turning more and more to trusted messengers, to people that they know is you're not a robot, you know, like I'll listen to you. And so making sure that we set up our goals, whether it's building clean energy around the world or holding oil and gas companies accountable, that we design those projects in a way that everyday people can participate. then we also empower them to become messengers themselves. Because look, as talented as the three of us are, three white folks from the US are not gonna be the trusted messengers for everybody in the world. So we need to figure out how to design campaigns so that people can feel a real sense of ownership over it, and then go do it in a way that's gonna work in their community and really strengthen their ability to create change where they live.

I just wanna double down on that, and there's this kind of like- Triple down? Triple down, we're here for it. There's like, there's a part of. of our work that both of us are doing, that all of us are doing, which is also like launching these people into learning to operate their most effective levers of change. And there are these outcomes that we see where these folks that come through programs like Protect Our Winners, or what Jamie's doing over at Fossil Free Media, like we create these trusted messengers who go off and do their own thing, launch their own campaigns, launch their own organizations, go off and do their own work. I mean, I'm kind of a product of that in some ways. And there these amazing outcomes where we're not only taking on the kind of objective of building up and deploying on the specific campaign that we're working on, but we're also building the leaders in these communities that they can further this action with their own levers and drive the change that we need. And it's like these long-term outcomes that come out of this investment that are really exciting, whether that's professional athletes running for office or launching their own organizations to meet their communities where they're at, or launching their own get out the vote campaigns that are specific and thoughtful and things like I would certainly never think of and meet large parts of our community where they're at in really disruptive, thoughtful ways. And that's like, there are these really exciting outcomes that can come out of this that are genuinely fun and are like those ideas that are gonna get us where we need to go.

Yeah, I love that too, because I think I mean, triple, like a tripling down, quadrupling down. I think that all of this is really important because in general, what I kind of hear you both saying is that it's not only impactful, but it's also empowering, right? So if you help work with people, if you give them some information or some data, right, then they can like sneak it in. It's almost like, I feel like sometimes when we're trying to. change people's minds or trying to educate, a lot of times we're like sneaking broccoli into mac and cheese. You're like, I promise, it's just taste, you won't even notice, it's not even there. And you try to do that. And I think it's really empowering to people to know that, oh, I do have a voice. I am just a regular person. We don't always need celebrities to be the ones to tell us. In fact, I don't know about you, but I don't always listen to them because I'm like, you don't know my life. You're living in a whole different space than I am. And I think that it's more relatable when we hear from the people, actually, especially people who are being impacted directly. it stays with us more. And then if we're giving out tools and tips to people, it really empowers them to use their voice as well and know that they don't have to be a Leonardo. We all love Leo, like let's be honest, but you don't have to be that to make that happen. Thank you both so much for the work you do. Thank you, Graham and Jamie. Thank you to our audience for listening. Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Oh Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the SDG Media Zone. Our next session is about to start. If we can take our seats and quiet down the room, please.

Thank you.

So the next session, we're going to have a conversation about plants and people. As you can see, we have a wonderful setup here on stage. And I'm going to introduce Luis Calzadilla from the New York Botanical Garden to say a few words before we kick it off. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the SDG Media Zone. And thank you, UN and Public Foundation, for making this happen. It is a great pleasure to be here today with people like you who share a passion for advancing the sustainable development goals. My name is Luis Calzadilla and I serve as Senior Director of External Relationships and Engagement at the New York Botanical Garden. Part of my role is to connect the garden's scientific research and conservation work with governments, diplomatic missions, multilateral organizations, and international partners. For that reason, It is a huge pleasure for me to be here today in the media zone connecting NYBG's work with the multilateral agenda and with global conversations about biodiversity, climate, food systems, health, and sustainable development. Our session today is titled "From Plants to People: Ethnobotany, Cultural Knowledge, and Food for Health." We will explore the deep relationships that people around the world have developed with plants, using them for food, health, and cultural continuity. We will also consider how traditional knowledge, scientific research, and biodiversity can help address challenges, including nutrition, food security, public health, and cultural preservation. It is now my pleasure to introduce two remarkable ethnobotanists, Dr. Michael Balick is an internationally recognized ethnobotanist who has spent more than four decades studying relationships between plants, people, and culture. At NYBG, he has worked with indigenous and local communities across the tropics and beyond to document traditional plant knowledge, support biodiversity conservation, and promote the sustainable use of natural resources. His research has taken him to more than 25 countries, and he has authored or edited more than 30 books and over 175 scientific publications. This is also a very special moment. Last Friday marked Mike's 46th anniversary in NYBG. So Mike, congratulations for such extraordinary work. Dr. My other colleague, Dr. Salina Ahmed, is the Global Executive Director of the Periodic Table of Food Initiative and Dean of Food Edu at the American Heart Association. For more than 20 years, her research and outreach have focused on food systems, agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge, climate resilience, food security, sustainable diets, and human and planetary health. Mike and Salina first met when Selena was one of our graduate students at NYBG. Today, we have the privilege of bringing them together again for a conversation about how plants and cultural knowledge can contribute to a healthier and more sustainable future. So please join me in welcoming Michael Belek and Selena Ahmed. Floor is yours.

Thanks so much for the welcome. Let's start with ethnobotany. Mike, what is ethnobotany?

Let me clarify what Louise said. You were one of our extraordinary graduate students. Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between plants, people, and culture. So think about what your mother or grandmother would have given you when you had a stomach ache. What I do, depending on what part of the world I'm in when I ask questions, you get very different answers. So that question, the answer to that question might be garlic or ginger or if it's an older person or chamomile. If it's a younger person, it might be ginger ale. So lots of different answers to lots of the same question.

So building on that description of ethnobotany, what personally drew you to the field of ethnobotany?

Well, I grew up learning to grow food in my grandparents' garden. And at the age of five, I'd go out there and look at, for example, cucumbers. And you could see the difference. A cucumber one day would be this big, and the next day it would be that big. And it was the same thing. And I was just absolutely floored by that as a five-year-old. And fortunately, I had professors through high school, undergrad, and graduate who supported this love for plants. and allowed me to sort of focus on the relationship between plants and people. Now, one of the things our paths share is learning from communities around the world. So I'll ask you the same question. What drew you, Selena, to ethnobotany?

Yeah, I've long been fascinated by human relationships with the environment and specifically through food and medicinal plants. I was working in New York in finance and really was thinking about how do we take this knowledge, ethnobotanical knowledge, to address some of the largest challenges of our times using place-based knowledge. And so I started an ethnobotany program, first a master's, working with farming communities, really began to understand the impacts of climate that was happening on food systems and wanted to get further education. That's what brought me to the New York Botanical Garden, where I was lucky enough to meet you and get training both in field research as well as laboratory and really taking an interdisciplinary approach in understanding these large pressing challenges of our time.

And how have the communities that you've worked with sort of shaped the way you understand food and its relationship to health?

Yeah, when I first started asking communities, I was very focused on a specific food. And what I walked away with is this broader understanding of sustainable food systems, the interconnection between food and the environment, our ancestors, generations yet to come. really all of the natural elements and relationship being a really core part of that. I also was introduced to the concept of food quality. We often think about food in terms of calories and basic nutrients, but food is really nourishment, it's healing, it's food is medicine, and it really expanded my world view of understanding food. Food is also cultural story, it's cultural identity. It plays a really large role when we're thinking about human and planetary solutions. And that really all came from my work in communities around the world. So, here in the Sustainable Development Goal Media Zone, we're reminded that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals means addressing challenges that are deeply interconnected. How can ethnobotany help address today's pressing global challenges?

So, many of today's challenges, as we know, are environmental and societal. And we find that ancient wisdom, ancient ways of managing resources sustainably can be extremely valuable today, particularly in enclosed spaces like islands where there's nowhere to expand, right? So people over millennia have developed ways to manage their resources. But equally important are the ways that people think about nature and think about resources the communities I've been so privileged to work with consider these areas sacred, that there are lessons embedded in those areas and that they worship them as sacred spaces. And we need to learn a little bit from that attitude, I think.

So let's build on that a little bit further. What makes the approach, the ethnobotanical approach and understanding this knowledge unique?

So The ethnobotanical approach is really bottom up, driven at the community level. I think all too often we design top down, sort of cookie cutter approaches to learning about sustainability and knowledge. And really, there's so much to learn from communities because they've lived in these areas in a harmonious fashion for centuries or millennia. And personally, I think people who might live thousands of miles away might not have the exact solution that can be applied to every single area. So again, the culture, understanding the culture and the belief systems, the languages, we know that environmental management is embedded in language names, for example. So understanding those languages, all of that is very important and place-based. Now, we've talked about knowledge built over generations, and today, science offers new ways to explore food and health. So, Celina, how are the emerging scientific tools that you've used creating new opportunities to connect food and people and human health.

Yeah, so now we have high resolution tools to understand food quality in unprecedented ways. So the same multi-omics technology that's been used to understand medicine can also be applied to food and our food systems. At the Periodic Table of Food Initiative, that's exactly what we are doing. We've developed standardized multi-omics tools to understand food systems and food quality. These are all of the tens of thousands compounds that give food its specific attribute, whether this is aroma, whether this is flavor, whether these are medicinal properties. So at the back of a nutrition label, we often see total fat or total fiber, but actually food has tens of thousands of specific compounds. In commonly consumed foods, we see over 420,000 protein components, as well as 27,000 unique metabolites, specialized metabolites that are used for many different purposes, including anti-inflammatory properties. And we're distributing these tools to labs in countries globally so they can characterize their place-based food systems, and we can really have evidence at scale of how climate change and how we steward our agroecosystems impact food quality, and ultimately what this composition does for nutrition, for food security, and for human health in combating diet-related chronic disease.

That's truly incredible.

So, Mike, let's make this tangible. Can you share one example of an approach to keep traditional plant knowledge, ancient wisdom alive and in practice today?

Sure. Well, cultural memory is really important. You know, the memory of where you came from, how you grew up, your culture. And a year ago today, interestingly, at the United Nations, we launched this two-volume book, the plants, people, and culture of Tafea Province, Vanuatu, here at the UN, as I say, courtesy of the ambassador, Aoto Tevi, and his wonderful staff at the mission from Vanuatu. And these books are the product of 4,000 interviews with 200 local experts and 19 co-authors. including 14 indigenous co-authors. And the goal was to document the traditional knowledge at the generalist level of the southern province of Vanuatu. And this was a task that was asked, requested of us by the traditional leaders and the chiefs and the government at the national level. And in this book, there are 852 different species of plants including a couple of hundred food plants that, you know, we don't know about, that people wanted to preserve the knowledge of. In addition, Vanuatu being one of the most language dense places in the world, with 138 languages for 300,000 people, each of these plants has a language name recorded. And so we launched these books in Vanuatu in November. And it was truly amazing to see the communities, how emotional they were with the knowledge of their ancestors coming back. Because prior to that, we'd ask questions, well, about plants and the people would say, well, yes, so and so knew about that, but he's gone now. And they realized that wouldn't it be wonderful to try and codify the information because it's not a system that's really codified anywhere. And one of the most encouraging aspects of this is that this interest in traditional knowledge led people to create a new type of conservation unit for their forests. And they call it in Vislama, custom forest conservation, where villages will put aside a small piece of land or a large piece of land. They might name it after a deceased chief or a important person in the village so that they keep their memory alive. And through their traditional management systems, including the taboo system, you're not allowed to do this, you can only do that. a lot of different areas in Vanuatu are now being conserved. And these are now connected with something they also developed called custom schools. You see, Western schools in the South Pacific teach Western values, Western knowledge from Western textbooks. And these folks in these custom schools have built them so that they set up the way to teach young people how to weave a coconut rope, how to harvest taro, how to produce a beverage from kava, how to build a house from bamboo and miscanthus grass that's actually stronger than a cinder block house and will survive a cyclone. So the two parallel systems of education grew out of this project that we began with our local partners in 2013.

Incredible.

Now, let's bring this back to each of us. What's one way that each of us can deepen our relationship with plants and the living world in our daily lives?

Yeah, it's just to be more curious about the plants around us. And instead of talking about it, let's have a small sensory experience, smelling and tasting some plants. So we have some mints and four plants that were contributed by the New York Botanical shop that are all in the same botanical family, the Lamiaceae. I'm going to ask Louise to pass around two mints and you can each take one leaf each. So I'm going to grab one, two. And I encourage everybody to try this, you know, when you're seeing One of the things I learned in communities is that not all apples are alike. They vary based on the variety, they vary based on how they're grown, where they're grown, on geography. And so all of those different environmental and agricultural factors and the way humans manage those plants impact the quality. Those are ultimately the tens of thousands of molecules that are in these. And that diversity really results that we could actually sense, and so in the laboratory we have these high resolution machines that are able to sense this and understand what those molecules are. But humans can also perceive those differences, the different genetic varieties. And so I encourage you just to kind of rub the plants and smell the difference between the two. the same genus of mentha. And if you can actually sense the difference between those two. And so that diversity, each of those different molecules has a different structure. And so ultimately it has a different function in our body. So when we're thinking about biodiversity in the landscape, encouraging this biodiversity in the landscape is really important for encouraging dietary diversity and bringing that dietary diversity really for food for dietary quality and ultimately when we're thinking about food security and diet related chronic disease are really bringing these diverse molecules into our diets. The next thing we're going to do is a brief tasting. And also those plants were used are used for digestion. So you were speaking about plans for digestion around the world. The next we're going to do a quick sensory tasting those of you who want to. There are two different teas. They're Gaikura green teas and they're both high quality. One was grown using more regenerative agricultural practices. And I want to see if you're able to taste the difference between the teas based on the agricultural stewardship. So one has less synthetic fertilizers or no synthetic fertilizers while the other one doesn't? And are we actually able to taste regenerative agriculture or organic impacts on nutrient density and overall food quality? And then how is that quality ultimately impacting our human health and how is it linked back to our stewardship of agricultural systems? So I'm going to pour some tea and I would love for you to help me pass that around. And I would say this is a highly caffeinated tea, so if you're sensitive to caffeine, just be aware. Oh, yes. Okay, and I'm going to ask you to be a taste tester for these two different teas. So we're going to put them in two different cups, and just for you to come up and describe the differences that you're tasting. Okay, so we have these two different teas. I'm going to give you that one first. And if you can kind of describe what you're tasting and any notes, and I will have some tea with you as well.

Cucumber.

Cucumber.

Cucumber.

Peach? Which number do you have on the bottom? Number two? Yeah. Accent stone, fruit and peach. Any other characteristics? It's very fruity. It's a very fruity green tea. Kind of savory. So the cucumber is kind of, yeah, so that kind of is indicative of the shade grown. Fresh. And did you taste the second one? That's number two. Oh, so I'm gonna give you number one. Yes.

Different. Yeah.

Different.

Fresh as well.

Fresh as one, yeah. Which one would you say has more of a, stronger flavor.

Probably number two.

Number two. Yeah. So number two is the one that was grown from our organic or regenerative agricultural system. It's more stressed because the plants aren't being pampered and it's upregulating a lot of these secondary metabolites that also impact its quality and our impacts on human health. So thanks for sharing the sensory experience and I'll pass it over to you.

Thank you, Mike and Selena for such a fascinating conversation and for showing us through this wonderful experience how ethnobotany connects knowledge, culture, plants, and our day-to-day lives. And to thank you all for joining us today and for sharing our commitment to a healthier and more sustainable future. Before we close, I would like to extend a warm invitation because during the final three months of the year, during the whole year, We will have programming at the New York Botanical Garden, and we would love to welcome you all in the garden. We hope you visit us and continue exploring your own relationship with plants and the living world. Thank you again, and enjoy the rest of the SDG Media Zone. And thank you again, Public Foundation and UN for making this space possible. Thank you.

All right. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the SDG Media Zone. We're live from the UN headquarters in New York during the 81st UN General Assembly, and I'm pleased to pass it to our moderator, Chris Morocco, food director at Bon Appetit, for our next panel discussion.

Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. I am so thrilled to be able to present Rethinking Food from Plate to Planet, a conversation about reducing food waste. I'm Chris Morocco. I am the food director of Bon Appetit, which means that I oversee all of our recipe content, as well as our team of fabulous test kitchen editors at our offices here in New York City. I have the honor of sharing the stage with two people who have notable experience in the subjects of food insecurity, sustainability, and inspiring people to act. With me is Evan Ehlers, founder and CEO of Sharing Excess, one of the nation's largest food rescue operations that takes surplus food and redistributes it to communities in need. It's a hugely inspiring organization that I have had the honor of seeing in action. Also with me is Tara Galina, co-owner and chief experience officer of Take Root Hospitality, which operates two renowned restaurants, Vissia and Winslow's Table in the St. Louis area, that focus on cultivating deep relationships with Midwest food producers. Incidentally, Vissia landed on Bon Appetit's top 50 restaurants list of 2017. It's great to have you both here. Thank you.

Great to be here. Thanks for having us.

All right, let's get into it. So, Evan, why is so much food going to waste when there are so many people experiencing food insecurity right now?

Oh, my God. Well, great question. That's what I'm asking myself every day. Well, the stats are pretty staggering. In the United States alone, we're throwing away nearly 40% of our food supply. It could be up to 140 million pounds of food every year, excuse me, 140 billion. And that's enough food to fill over 700 NFL stadiums from the ground to the very top. And every year, we also have a little over 48 million Americans that experience food insecurity. The meal gap in the United States is around 9.1 billion meals. Globally, we have over 730 million people that are considered to be food insecure. But what's interesting about the waste in the United States is we're throwing away 10 times the amount of food that we need to Technically feed everybody who's hungry in America. So this is an issue not an issue of supply it's an issue of logistics and distribution and access and partnerships why a lot of food is going to waste is about as ridiculous as the numbers themselves the food that we see being thrown into landfills oftentimes is still perfectly edible. And actually over 60% of the food that goes to waste out of all of those numbers I just mentioned happens before it ever reaches consumers' homes. So it's not even hitting a refrigerator or a plate or somebody's ability to have anything to do with it. It's being lost at the farm level, wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, and the perception of food and what it should look like has become so high that we're throwing away billions of pounds of food just because of minor aesthetic imperfections or just the timing. It's too ripe and there's not enough time for it to have five days on a retail shelf and then five days in a consumer's refrigerator.

Wow. And Tara, I'm curious, like from the restaurant side, it strikes me that restaurants are some of the least likely places to want to waste food, just given that profit margins depend on, you know, the food coming in being turned into compelling dishes for your diners. Is that accurate, though?

100%. I think home cooks should think about running their own kitchen like a restaurant, essentially. We pride ourselves on not wasting anything. If you design your menu in a smart way and you're intelligent and you're ordering properly, you're never wasting anything at the end of the week. Something that we really pride ourselves on is creating a menu that's changing often to adapt to that. When a farmer is like, "Hey, I got a thing I needed to go. I don't have that much time," we can shift and adapt really quickly to help bridge that gap. That's not easy for everyone to do. But I think if you can look into your pantry, your fridge, and start to think about, how do I order based on what I already have instead of buying things I don't need, which I think we're all guilty of at a time or two, but I think that's the chef perspective, the restaurant perspective. So, yeah, we don't want to waste anything. I think we're setting an example of how not to do that.

Yeah, I think for Bon Appetit, ultimately, we want to train our audience to know what to do with that half head of cabbage, with that slightly squirrely looking potato, you know, that's in the back of the crisper drawer, what have you. So I, one thing that I was really curious about is how much of this are you sort of communicating to your diners? Like how much do they care? Like do they, do they, do they need to know what you do with your potato scraps? Like, do you tell them, do you volunteer that?

Not necessarily. I think you have to be careful and remember why people go out to eat and it's to have a pleasurable experience. They want to enjoy the company at the table, they want the food to taste delicious. If there is an opportunity to provide a little bit of education or insight into the how we got there, I think it's a win for us. We want to be careful to make sure that the diner walks away feeling like they weren't given a lesson for dinner. We are prepared and we educate our staff to be able to do that. But knowing those right moments to so is something you have to be careful about.

Yeah, I couldn't help but notice Blue Hill Stone Barns is on your resume, which is kind of the pinnacle of sort of sustainability in hospitality, right? Is that kind of fair? 100%. How much of what you learned at Stone Barns are you able to put into play in Visia, you know, your other restaurants and concepts.

Yeah, I mean, a lot. I think, you know, we opened our first restaurant Visia almost 10 years ago, 2017. We came in hard. We were really like vegetables front and center Meat was a side option, was a small menu, modest portions. And the reaction maybe wasn't as great as we had hoped. And we learned a lot of lessons from that. And fast forward to today, almost a decade later, I think we're able to use those principles and practices in a way that meets people where they are, as opposed to trying to force that lesson upon them. And our menu is really allowing people to have this safe choice if they want, but if they go for our three-course menu, it's family style, we let us cook for them. give them permission to try new things. And I think where I'm seeing a lot of opportunity in changing this conversation is when there's a lot on the table and there's less at stake and there's less pressure to the diner, they're willing to go out there and try the cabbage and try the beet and get excited about that because they know there's still a safe choice over here waiting for them.

Yeah. Evan, I wanna pivot back to you here. And you sort of said multiple times that food waste is sort of the world's dumbest problem. Feels like we have a lot of dumb problems, though. There's a lot of competition in that space right now. But what would be the added benefits of solving this problem for society as a whole?

Yeah, I think you're totally right that there are competing issues and really urgent issues that we're being bombarded with. You look at the headlines, and it's impossible to choose where you spend your time, what you want to try to solve as a human being on this planet. But what I'm particularly interested in about food waste is the fact that it's a lever for change in so many different aspects. With all of the food that we throw away globally, it accounts for about 8% of greenhouse gases. We think about when we throw away food, we're not only throwing away the actual matter itself that's ending up in landfills and creating methane and CO2, but you're also wasting all of the resources that went into producing that food, the carbon, the packaging, the water. Just in the United States alone, we're throwing away 21% of our fresh water supply with the food that we throw away every year. So we call this the world's dumbest problem because not only are we missing out on literally solving world hunger by having the food that is ending up in our trash, but it's also compounding and impacting our planet and suffocating our planet. So I see this as a unique issue where, you know, everyone should be able to get behind It's food. This is not a partisan issue. If we can just make this one thing that everyone makes a small difference in their lives, whether it's to reduce your own food waste at home or to create some sort of initiative in your own town or community, the same way I did out of the back of my grandmother's car eight years ago, you can actually make a huge difference by reducing your food waste in more ways than one.

Tara, at least like on the individual level, you mentioned that home cooks could be operating their front of house the way you operate your back of house. What would that look like for a home cook to actually incorporate some of the practices that you would use in a professional kitchen?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's like on the personal level, something my husband and I do, like with our own family, is, you know, we sit down every week, we look at what we have, what's in the freezer, what's in the fridge, right? What's about to go bad, what's in the pantry. Let's write a menu, let's write a prep list, let's get organized, and then figure out, do we need to supplement with anything else, as opposed to wandering aimlessly around the grocery store. I don't know what we're going to do. No, I mean, I'm not saying I've never done it, trust me. But I think if you can employ those practices, like more often, it will become a lot easier. And I think it has to taste good, right? Like if our food delicious, we don't want to eat it. And I think a lot of the food that you're rescuing is great food that is super delicious and tasty. And knowing and you guys educating readers and subscribers on how to actually cook the food in a way that they're going to love and isn't intimidating, those vegetables and lesser loved products become a lot more desirable. But it has to taste good.

What happens to the food that's donated to the U.S. like what can it become as it sort of continues on its journey after it's been in turn donated to a community or individual in need?

Yeah, so we work with a little over 1000 food businesses. These are farms, wholesalers, grocery stores, and we're literally going and picking up that food using trucks, vans, vehicles, we figured out a way to scale the logistics to get that excess food and then deliver it to communities in need through partnerships with with over 2000 food banks, schools, community organizations and mutual aid efforts that are giving the food out for free in communities. So a lot of times when we're distributing food to our partners, they'll take it and then turn it into almost like a farmer's market style distribution where it's free and available for anyone. It's kind of this like beautiful, idyllic version of what life should be like, how we should be in communities, you know? When we have this much food, no one should be going without and we should be able to rejoice around getting to the point in our food system where we have enough excess to be wasting 40% of our food supply. But what we see from there are families then taking those mainly fruits and vegetables or what we're delivering because it's highly perishable. They're making their favorite meals out of the food that we're delivering. They're adding some of the ingredients that they have in their cupboards and then turning that into, you know, grandma's recipe. And all they needed were the peppers and the tomatoes to make the sauce that they've always wanted. And it's beautiful to see how we can use what's in abundance to make that fit into our everyday lives and not always need new, new, new, more, more, more.

Yeah. And one thing I was wondering about is when, you know, so, okay, let me, let me come clean, you know, working in food media, right? A lot of our audience in social wants to be entertained. They don't necessarily want to be educated. And yet I look at your social content and I think, wow, you're kind of doing it both. I've really learned a lot from watching just how your organization operates on social. The warehouse of potatoes, the scale of when I say it's so many potatoes, it is so many frigging potatoes. And yet, like you see the possibilities, you see that as an opportunity, but how important is social for you and for your organization in terms of driving awareness, like, do you feel like you're able to show up authentically?

Absolutely. I mean, there's so much that goes into shifting systems and we can only ever do so much just ourselves as one organization or one group of people. This is going to take a mass adoption of millions of people. So we need to learn how to turn our message into something that people actually care about, something where our generation and generations younger than I am are going to stop the endless doom scroll and say, wait, why care about food waste? so, you know, we rescued over 16 million pounds of potatoes earlier this year from a few farmers in Idaho, and it was a shed that's larger than this entire building. It's like a mountain of potatoes behind us and just showing something weird. And non, it's something you wouldn't expect when you're scrolling on your feed. That's the sort of shock that we want to give because that's the shock that we are actually seeing. Truckloads and truckloads of perfectly edible food being thrown away into landfills and nobody is even seeing this. So we think it's our job to at least bring it to light and say, you know, these use the same structures that they use for hooks to get you to buy makeup or to buy some product on TikTok and use it to get people to care about food waste and food insecurity. that's happening in their same backyard.

What about you, Tara? How important is social media in terms of pushing the message you might have in the back of your mind around sustainability in your restaurant operations?

Yeah, I mean, I think storytelling is a lot of what we do, and it's on Instagram, but it's also in the experience of dining at the restaurant. And I think we're looking to amplify other people's experiences too. And I think that's when somebody walks away from a dinner with us or grabbing lunch at Winslow's and kind of connects with an ingredient, I want to share that and I want to have other people see that there's more to it than just us telling you it tastes good. But I think storytelling at the table is really our most impactful way to impact the diners that we're with, is getting them in with something that looks really good, but then getting to tell a bigger story about the farm that it came from or the ingredients that we saved from the garden that were going bad that we were able to turn into this delicious pesto that they're enjoying right now.

So that puts a lot on the front of house staff to be the messenger, right? What does that look like then in terms of training and how you approach educating the them and what you're doing as well.

Yeah, we have an amazing team and they are really adept at reading the room of the guests that they have, but also we give them a lot of education on the call sheets. We go through every single ingredient in every dish. Our chefs come out every time there's something new and they tell us the story of how it came to be. We like to take field trips out to some of the farm partners that we work with and give them that touch point that they could connect with. We don't want people to sound scripted. I think it has to feel natural and authentic. And I think giving them all the tools them to know when to select those right moments to share with the guests when there's kind of that spark of interest.

Is there a food you just can't sell, both of you? Like, is it like, oh, God, not another box of parsnips or what have you? Is there anything that's hard to move?

That's a good question. I feel like, thankfully, I think a lot of people are coming around to, thanks to, I think, efforts like Bon Appetit and other people who are sharing recipes that there is really delicious ways to have cabbage and rutabaga and some of these things that maybe get a bad rap. But I think they're becoming more mainstream, which is exciting. So I think people, at least, that come to Vici are ready to take the ride, and so they go with it, even if it sounds maybe a little bit outside their comfort zone. What about you?

Youka root. For sure. Yes, I mean, that's a difficulty with, you know, we will receive over 500 different types of produce in a given year, and it has to be culturally appropriate for the communities that we're serving. Right, right, right. So when we have a truckload of eggplant, for example, and communities are not exactly sure what to make of it or what to do with it, it creates a little bit of a conundrum for us where the education needs to keep pace with the food that we're distributing, so that's with Tara Suing and just with Bon Appetit as well, the education around what you can do with the food that is grown and that's in excess, maybe the food that you didn't choose but it's in front of you, it's so important to see the possibilities and realize how delicious food can be when it is part of someone's culture and they've made an entire life out of making it taste good.

I don't know, rutabaga is tough.

All right, maybe not rutabaga.

Evan, what is a question that you wish people would ask you about the work that you do?

I wish people would ask, what does it take to scale this everywhere? And I think if more people ask that, they would realize that it's actually pretty easy to do. We are not doing anything that's novel. In fact, sharing excess and the reason why we call it sharing excess is because it's a simple concept that's been practiced for thousands of years. Farmers in their fields, when they were done with their harvest, they would leave the rest that they have for the community to come and pick it up. So I think getting back to the roots and the simplicity of community and that if we just share the resources that we have already in our world with each other, nobody has to suffering from the lack of those very same resources. So, I just encourage people to also ask themselves the question of, what bothers you? What are you seeing in your community where it is something that is stuck with you and bothered you? Because more than likely, you are the right person to solve it if it's bothering you.

Yeah. And for both of you, what can anyone listening do today to help address this problem of food waste? I'm just curious, like at any scale, at any level, obviously, we've addressed like some of those possible solutions. Anything else come to mind?

Yeah, I mean, I still really lean on the idea of shopping your own kitchen and like making those small adjustments to how you plan out your week and trying not to throw anything away if you can help it or taking a few minutes, go on Instagram, go on TikTok and learn a recipe for something that you do not like that you have left over. How do I turn this into something else? I think educating ourselves is really important, even if it's in one recipe at a time.

Most part, you know, my kids are six.

And eight, like they still love chicken tenders and mac and cheese like every other kid. You know, but we like to outside of their boundaries a little bit too sometimes and I think they don't have a choice.

Perfect.

I would say shop small, waste small. If you go and you buy an enormous amount of food at once, you're very likely to waste at least some of it, but if you get just enough of food that what you're going to eat for that day or those couple of days, you're going to reduce the chance of wasting. And then outside of that, there's a lot that you can do in your communities. There are food rescue organizations in almost every community. I encourage people to just type in food rescue and then wherever you live and more than likely you'll find organizations just like Sharing Access that are doing great work that you should support.

Awesome. We'll definitely check out Sharing Access, follow them on Instagram. And also if you're in the St. Louis area, check out Vicia and Winslow's Table. Can't thank you both enough for this conversation. Such a pleasure to be with you and thank you all.

Thanks so much.

Hi.

How are you? I'm Kate.

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the SDG Media Zone. We are live from UN Headquarters during the 81st session of the General Assembly. Our next session is about to start. I'm going to hand it over to the moderator, Teresa Mondria Terol from NPR. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, and thank you very much, everyone, for attending this session on building an inclusive AI future. I am joined here today by Alexandre de Croux, the administrator of the UNDP, Kate Calo, founder and CEO of Amini, an AI startup building data infrastructure in Africa and the broader global south, and Big Ocean, the world's first hard of hearing K-pop band. Today, as AI reshapes economies, a real test is whether its benefits reach the communities most at risk of being left behind. The session brings together three perspectives on building inclusive AI. The UNDP's role as an ecosystem builder, expanding compute access and enabling policies where AI is least available. An African entrepreneur whose data infrastructure is opening AI in the global south. and the world's first hard of hearing K-pop group, whose use of AI in performances shows inclusion in practice. Administrator de Cueva, I'm gonna start with you. As a development organization that works across 170 countries and territories, how does the UNDP see the impact of AI on international development? And what is the UNDP doing to support countries to address these opportunities and challenges alike?

Well, first of all, for us, um, AI, artificial intelligence is an incredible accelerator of development and, and, um, the capacity to upscale. to bring solutions at places where we couldn't bring it. It just helps us to jump some of the traditional obstacles that you have in development. And I mean, quite a substantive share of the projects that we do today, there are elements of AI or on our operational side or in bringing the solutions that we need to bring. The challenge that we see is that the speed of adoption of AI is much higher than the speed of countries building governance to do so. That gap is widening. Now, there is a discussion that has been fueled over the last weeks, or should we slow down AI or not? We actually think that we should speed up the speed of governance. I think it's going to be hard to slow down the speed of technology playing its role. That doesn't mean that we should just let everything happen the way it is happening now. But the big gap that we see is that countries don't have the right capabilities to govern AI. Speeding that up is one of the other domains on which we work.

Thank you. Kate, as an AI entrepreneur, what do you believe needs to be in place for local innovators to build AI that serves their own communities?

Thank you for having me, and I think it's a great question. You know, I spent the last 15 years building AI for big tech here in the US, lastly at NVIDIA, and then realizing that there was a fracture that was being created. On one side, the technology was making so much advancements, but on the other side, a lot of the global south was still being left behind. Very recently, a lot of companies have been pitching AI diffusion, increasing access to the models, But for me, the real work that needs to happen is we need to start treating infrastructure and capability as a responsibility. If we're only focusing on the diffusion and access of models, but not focusing on building the infrastructure that will allow developers to build solutions for their own communities and their own countries, we won't make any progress. Because what will happen is we're running through a world that will look very similar to one out of the world, but adapt solutions that are actually not localized to the local context. And I think we need to reverse this curve, and that only happens if we build the infrastructure and we train people locally to be able to build for themselves.

Thank you for such an interesting approach. Big Ocean, in your music, you use AI as an assistive tool to perform and connect with your audiences. What does AI inclusion look like from your side? And what can technologists and policymakers learn from that about designing AI for people in an inclusive way?

OK. Thank you for having us. And we are the world's first K-pop AI group. And we sing in three different styles-- Korean style language, American style language, international style. And Our slogan is "Feel music, feel beauty." Thank you so much.

So to answer your question, thank you. We use AI in three main ways. All three came from things we really needed. First is vocal training. So AI shows us the pitch we cannot hear. So we can correct it ourselves. And second, it's rhythm. We use a metronome. We use a metronome so that place, so we can catch the rhythm during this system. And so, yes, third, When we make a song, the voice, we use AI voice technology. So the system learned our voices and the guide vocal, and then it changes the guide vocal into our own voice. So the final voice you hear is based on our voices.

And none of this began at the technology project. And we found the tools or make them ourselves because we needed them without the tools coming signal would not have been possible for us. And with them, it is possible. And for us, this is for inclusion through AI. Looks like.

And something surprised us. A lot of people want to use this tool too. We made a

on metronome system for deaf people. Oh, sorry, I'm so nervous. Okay, yeah, we made one metronome system for deaf people. So, but we learned that it can be also help other people who are learning music for the first time. So, So seeing and feeling the beat half them too. So our company is looking at ways to develop it to create. Yes. This is why. accessibility shouldn't, should not, should not, okay, this is why should not, this is why accessibility should not, should not, sorry, should not, yeah, So that, so that, so that, ah, that's important, that is, ah, yes, this is, this is very important, important point, um, part of the design from the start. And when you start, and when you start with paper, When you start with people who are often left out, you can often create something better for everyone. Thank you.

These are very illustrative examples of building an inclusive AI future. As a closing question, I would love for each of you to give me one thing that gives you hope about this potential to create a more equitable future.

Well, first of all, what we see is in any of the countries where we work is an incredible appetite with a young population to contribute to the development of their own country. through entrepreneurial ventures. I mean, yes, you can do that in civil society, you can do that as a politician, but especially in finding solutions for the day-to-day challenges that people live with, technology is an incredible enabler, and AI will be a very, very important lever to do so. So that is, to me, a big reason of optimism. We are not blind for the problems of access, you're not blind for the geopolitical tension that is around AI. But for us on the day-to-day application, it's an incredible potential that you see there. So let's tap into that potential and make sure that it can be done in a safe way.

What gives me hope, I'd say, is the millions of developers that are right now in the global south who already have been using AI for a very long time. who are quite savvy in data science and machine learning and have actually been driving innovation, AI innovation in their own countries. So really for me, it's about enabling them, meeting them where they are and continue supporting them for them to be able to build the future of their economies.

Yeah. Okay. To answer your question, yeah, I believe many more things became will become possible. Let's share example from this week. At the store at UNGA event, yeah, all cast was installed in the room. So it's a technology we introduced for people who use hearing aid. The hardest part is not often the volume So it's telling different sounds apart. So when music and crowd noise come in at the same time, it can be very hard to hear the music clearly. But the orchestra sends the sounds from stage straight to the hearing aid. This makes a new kind of listening possible. And that is a very small example. Without AI, our training would have been much harder. And without AI voice technology, we could not have or release our beauty getter. Yeah, because, but I think, I believe AI can solve most of them.

Thank you.

Thank you everyone for joining and let's hope for the future that you all painted here today. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yep, we're set. They're ready. Good afternoon and welcome everyone to the SDG Media Zone. We are broadcasting live from the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. My name is Jayashri Wyatt. I'm the Chief of Human Rights here at the United Nations Department of Global Communications. And just before we kick off the next session, we are thrilled to show a special transmission from Terrestrials United. This is an independent creative initiative supporting human rights and the global movement against hate, both online and offline. For this campaign, Gonzales creator, Jamie Hewlett, has created exclusive original artwork, transforming wearable art into a powerful global movement. His message is, "Terrestrials united, one planet, one human team. Whatever divides us on Earth, we all look up at the same stars." Let's have a look at the video now. Fantastic. So it is now my pleasure to introduce today's next session on human rights and artificial intelligence, the urgency of cooperation over competition. And I'd like to invite to the stage our moderator and our panelists today. We are so honored to have the United Nations High Commissioner Volker Turk, whose leadership has helped bring a human rights perspective to AI, one of the defining challenges of our time. And we're also delighted to welcome Kate Taylor, senior writer at Wired to moderate the conversation. Over to you, Kate.

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with you all today. I'm very excited to speak with you, High Commissioner, on this topic of the urgency of collaboration over competition in AI right now, which I think is such a timely thing. I know you very recently wrote an open letter on this topic. And I wanted to start off with asking why now you feel we're at this cusp of irreversible change. Why is now the time that we need to kind of take action on the issues of the potential harms of AI?

Well, first of all, great to be here. And it's interesting because I was just walking over in the New York, in some of the New York streets, and there are people coming up to me, great, great letter that you wrote. So I didn't realize that it actually had so much influence. I mean, it's clear what we have seen over the last couple of weeks and months is an awakening within the industry, within the corporate, within the corporations, both by those who are working on these things, but also by some of the CEOs that they're actually asking in a way for help. To be honest, we have been following AI development for the last nine years, and for us, it has always been absolutely clear that you need, and it's nice that we had the terrestrial video earlier, we have only one planet and it's entrusted to us. It's also entrusted to future generations. And it is absolutely clear when you have very powerful tools for good or the bad, we need to make sure that they act for the good and not just have risks involved that are potentially extremely, extremely damaging for humanity.

Yes, and thinking back to kind of around nine years ago when you began thinking of this, when did you begin seeing AI as a human rights issue? And what were kind of the first things you realized that this applied so concretely when you thought about human rights?

I mean, it starts with, I often meet students, and I know that there are students here today with us, and I meet students who go into studies and at the end of their studies, they wonder, will I be replaced through an AI agent? Will I be actually, will what I have learned now, will this become redundant? So the whole thing of future of work is about right to work. It's a fundamental human right. We have a right to work. We have a right to meaning in life. And what does it mean? What does AI mean? And what are these tools Are we part of their design? Is there a societal discussion about what this is for us? Or is it just decided by a few men, I have to say, mostly men that I know, who decide for us what is it that they're going to benefit from? So no, I think that it needs a broader societal discussion about not only the value, but also the human rights dimension, which is fundamentally about us as humans.

Yes, and I think as a business journalist, so much of the discussion is about the competition, which of these men are going to make the most money. How can we think about collaboration in terms of concrete plans for states and for governance? What are concrete ways we can encourage collaboration?

So collaboration is the only thing that saves humanity from potential harm. And it's not the first time that we are confronted with this. Sense of responsibility in the past, the human being was not able to extinguish Earth. Now, through the nuclear bomb and through climate change, we are the first generation, or probably the second generation, that is able to do harm that will not only affect us directly, but potentially future generations. So our sense of responsibility, our sense of what does it mean when we act today, What does it mean in terms of long-term strategic thinking? What are the decisions that we take today mean for children, young people, future generations? That sense of responsibility is not in our governance systems. We don't have it because it's all short-term. Electoral cycles are short-term. So it really goes to the fundamentals of governance. and regulation and the whole of society dialogue. So it's not just a few businessmen that decide for us, and we give them all the data, we give them everything that is dear to us, they know everything about us as well. No, it's about us taking power back.

Yeah.

And looking at past examples of regulation, whether that be about nuclear kind of issues or anything else, what are blueprints that you're turning to now when you think about this?

For instance, you could look at the pharmaceutical industry. When you have medicine go out into the market, you have not only rigorous testing, and by the way, there's also the gender dimension, because as you know, in the past, some of the medicine was developed purely with the male in mind. It wasn't even, they didn't look at women or girls or different age groups or people with disabilities. So of course, today we know that you have to test in a very different way than in the past when it comes to medication. The same with airplanes, you don't have just an airplane fly off and without ever being tested. Anything that is dangerous or potentially dangerous, of course, needs to be tested. There need to be rigorous verification process, oversight process, there needs to be monitoring. None of this we have on AI. So, I mean, look, we saw what happened on climate change. We saw what the fossil fuel industry for decades did to humanity by financing science that was frankly totally wrong. by influencing politics so that we would lose time to address one of the biggest challenges of our time, climate change. So I think we cannot allow this to happen on any other things, especially on the technological front, because we know it happened in the past, it failed, it was dangerous for us. So we, again, it's about us taking agency back, empowering ourselves and not allowing anyone else to take that power from us.

And then who has been open to this collaboration since the open letter?

So I had a few reactions, both from a lot from member states, I have to say. I've met a lot of foreign ministers, heads of government, all of them referred to this letter. Within the UN, the same, but also a lot of people, as I mentioned, even in the street, and people from the corporate sector as well, including one CEO to who I wrote, who immediately wrote me back and said, this was great.

Wow, I'm so interested. Yeah, what's the corporate sector? I was so curious about what CEOs have been saying. What has the response been like?

I think those who think responsibly and who have been with us in integrating human rights, the guiding principles on business and human rights, they are the ones who obviously see this as a huge potential or as a very important part of their framework. And they have been working with us on human rights impact assessment, on human rights due diligence. But to be honest, this is a small proportion of them. And that's so we need to push the tech sector to, yeah, to ensure that human rights are integrated in everything they do. And not only when the product is already out there, it has to start with the design, with the development, with the deployment and the use and the marketing of it. But we cannot leave it just them.

Right.

That's important as well.

Yeah. If you could prioritize one thing that the leaders of these companies would take on or commit to doing, what would you ask them?

Transparency.

Okay.

Human rights due diligence and not just lip service to that. Really, it has to be integrated into their risk assessments, oversight and independent oversight and verification.

And then thinking about states and even individuals who are kind of emerging as leaders in this coalition for responsibility for change around AI, who are you seeing kind of emerge here?

I mean, I see a number of, I mean, there is the Finnish Norwegian initiative that there are lots of governments that are many member states are now signing onto it. Of course, we need the big ones to come to the table. But if they are not willing at this stage to do that, there needs to be a lot of pressure from member states who are even smaller. The European Union countries can play a very important role. So we really need to galvanize energy. And I think that's why it becomes also a societal issue, especially for young people. I remember when young people in 2019 went out there ahead of Climate Week and had massive demonstrations and wanted to make sure that it influences politics. I think there's a similar moment when it comes to this technology and you have a lot of power. You can actually influence things, even if they tell you you can't or that you're powerless, you are not. And that's important because that will trigger action.

Yes, and kind of having had the open letter out in the world and being able to meet with so many people, I'm sure, this week who want to discuss AI, are you feeling optimistic? What are you feeling kind of now that you've seen the response?

I think there is a moment and a momentum and we need to absolutely keep at it. We need to maintain that momentum and in fact, snowball it in a way. Because I think that will have, I believe it will have an influence, it will have an impact. So we need to keep going.

Yes, and I'll turn this over to questions from the students after I ask one last question, which is, what comes next? What would you like to tell the students here that they should be kind of advocating for, they should be pushing their governments to pass?

I mean, I think, first of all, you have agency, you have power. That's where it starts, because I think there's also a lot of misinformation about don't, you know, about fear, about anger, about, you know, that we don't, we won't take, we will take things away from you, but that's absolutely not true. We should never, ever believe that we don't have agency and we don't have power. And of course, there are those who want to take it away, but you have it. Just use it, mobilize, activate, and yeah, and take it as a serious issue and see also the connection with all the other issues, all our big challenges that we have today, be it climate change, be it the environmental impact, be it the fact that our societies are fraying, that the social contract doesn't work, that there's so much polarization, and we can all overcome it. And I launched the Global Alliance for Human Rights precisely so that we are no longer in the defensive, but in the offensive, that we, you know, take our power back.

Yes, and I'll turn this over to one of our students who had some incredible questions.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kratima Divakar, and I'm an MPA student at SIPA, Columbia University, and I'm focusing on AI governance. I'm a lawyer by background. My question is that most international AI governance conversations start from a Western legal and technical baseline. How do we ensure that frameworks don't just replicate the existing power imbalances by requiring global South countries to adopt tools and approaches that are designed in the high income countries, rather than building institutions that fit their own contexts and priorities.

So it was really important that we had an AI summit take place in India this year. It's the first time that it took place in the global majority countries. And there were a lot of, I was there, I was invited by the government as well. And I had a chance to meet with a lot of startups, from not only India, but from many global majority countries. And that was very enriching. And I fully agree, it is about power, exercise of power. And what we see through technology is the perpetuation of existing power imbalances and inequities that exist in the system. So human rights was meant to take those away and to fight them. And that's why the human rights dimension in the whole governance discussion is so important because it brings in, it is about everyone everywhere. It is this fundamental radical idea that article one of the universal declaration put forward. We are all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. It doesn't depend on where you're born, under what circumstances you're born, that's the radical idea and we need to bring this out because there are too many who want to establish again, these totally old-fashioned ideas of supremacy. We are better than others. We are superior to them. Our lives need to be protected. Others don't have to be protected. So it's really important to bring in this dimension that is an ancient wisdom that comes from essentially the human rights movement.

Thank you so much. Hi, my name is Lara Karja. I'm with the SUNY Global Engagement Program. And this semester I'm doing research on AI governance and particularly focusing on the legal industry. So you sort of touched on this, but my question was if you had to identify three non-negotiable safeguards for any AI governance framework, especially in professions that impact people's rights and freedoms, what would they be?

Mean, absolutely human rights due diligence, human rights, the impact assessments. And as I said, already, when you even conceive it at the at the very at the at the design stage development, I mean, throughout the whole lifecycle of of the development, that's one. The other one is transparency. I mean, we need to know and we cannot have it hidden away, which is what is happening today. And, and oversight, independent oversight and monitoring mechanisms, that's come that comes to mind.

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you so much. I think that that is all we have time for today, but it was fantastic speaking with you. Thank you all for coming here today, and thank you for taking the time, High Commissioner.

Thank you.

Thanks. Good luck.

like.

Hello, we are live from the SDG Media Zone. Moving to our next session, AI, Follow the Money, AI Advertising and the Global Information Crisis.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Liz Nieboer, and I'm Vice President of Community Programs with Adweek. I'm so honored to be here with this incredible group of leaders and with you all. I'm joined by Charlotte Scadden, who's the Senior Advisor on Information Integrity at the United Nations, Jake Dobbins, who is the Co-Founder of the Conscious Advertising Network, and Rupan Desai, who's the Chief Marketing Officer of Unaterra. And we're gonna talk today not only about the information integrity crisis that is a kind of global phenomenon at this point, but also how it gets financed, kind of how we end up with the information that we see, that we engage with on a daily basis at this point. And to start, I want to talk about just for folks who might not be familiar with the term information integrity and are hearing it for the first time, what's actually happening in our information environment and what does advertising have to do with it? Charlotte, I'd love to start with you and then have folks chime in.

Yeah, thank you so much. So information integrity is this concept that's really grown over the past couple of years. Two years ago, the Secretary General of the UN launched the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity, which outlines kind of five broad principles for how we can get to a healthier, safer, more humane information ecosystem. And it contained a series of recommendations for many different groups, including governments, of course, civil society, tech companies, media, others, and including advertisers. By information integrity, we're really talking about the integrity of our global information ecosystem, right, which we see as being undermined and threatened by what we term information risks. So that could be, you know, mis- and disinformation, hate speech. It could be risks around emerging tech, including AI, many of which, frankly, you know, we're not even sure what they are yet. It could be lack of media freedom and the lack of viability of independent media, right, which we see as struggling around the world. It could also be censorship and lack of freedom of expression. So, you know, for us, all of our solutions are really firmly based in human rights, around freedom of expression, but also, you know, access to information, which is an important part of an individual's right to free expression. So with that in mind, you know, we have set out trying to bring these principles to life. And we looked around and, you know, a few years ago, I was looking around the information ecosystem for which groups can actually make change. And obviously, we have a lot of recommendations to tech companies, but do they follow them? You know, it's really hard to, uh, get tech to regulate itself, and we, I think we've seen that that's not going to get us where we want to go. But what I realized is, and I've learned from my expert friends here, that advertisers hold immense power in this digital ecosystem. Because actually, as Rupan always says, we call these social media platforms, we call them tech companies, but really they're advertising platforms. So what we've been trying to do over the past couple of years is engage advertisers to really raise awareness about what their ad dollars are fueling and funding, the role that advertisers are playing in creating some of these harms that we see. And those harms and where the UN comes in could be undermining climate action through disinformation. It could be child safety online, undermining elections. And frankly, in some cases, we're talking really serious peace and security issues and crises that are being exacerbated or fueled by information threats. So that's kind of where we got to where we are. And I'll let Jake and Rupin talk a bit about how we've been particularly engaging the advertising community. But for us, it's a really important aspect of what we're trying to achieve.

Before we get into how we address it, I'd love to talk a little bit about how we got to this place where growth and reach are valued over trusted information. Can you elaborate on the ecosystem that's enabled this environment, and if you'd like to, also how AI has changed or accelerated that?

Yeah, I can speak to that. So the entire internet, the model of the internet is based on three principles. It's not based on surfacing accurate and reliable information for the most part. It's based on the attention economy. So the more of us on these platforms for longer means that there is more advertising inventory that can be monetized. So attention or even addiction that has been coming out of some court cases in the US, so the addiction economy, Secondly, it's scale. So this is a $1.2 trillion industry. You talked about AI, you know, ChatGPT, OpenAI's product is now being monetized by advertising. The targets for ChatGPT's monetization program are $100 billion a year. So the scale of this industry is absolutely gargantuan. And the third principle is opacity. nobody can see where these ads are appearing, including, by the way, the very big brands that fund our entire ecosystem. So what that means in practice is that information that is credible, accurate and reliable does not necessarily get rewarded because it doesn't keep people on platforms for longer. It is often polarizing content. It is often anger. It is often things like suicide and self-harm content. It is climate disinformation. It's basically predicated on keeping people for longer. So we have lots of evidence of big brands next to abuse, abuse against migrants, violence against migrants, you know, all of those harms online. So that's the central problem. It's the business model of the attention economy.

Ruben, you spent a lot of time on the brand side, the advertiser side of this equation and have kind of moved into working with brands in a lot of capacities. I'm curious for your take on how we got here.

Look, in 1988, there was this movie, right? The Truman Show. And I can't use a better example than The Truman Show to define how marketeers and advertisers are lost right now. It almost feels, you know, it almost feels, and somewhere in that movie, that God complex creator says a line, which is, you know, people accept the reality they're given with. So somewhere along the line, the advertisers have forgotten that they hold the real power. 70 odd percent of the $1.26 trillion that Jake spoke about goes to three large platforms, each of which have shown that they have zero interest whatsoever. I mean, yes, there is an $18 billion contribution that Meta just did, and I'm calling it a charitable contribution because they accepted no blame. So none of these three companies have shown any signs whatsoever. Somehow, magically, if you look at all the conversations happening about AI, they seem to originate from some of the same companies that we have given a lot of power, but zero governance, over the last two decades. So going back to the theme of this session, which is follow the money, they want the advertisers money, they're not ready to take any responsibility of where the ads show up. Every piece of misinformation, disinformation is added inventory for them. It's more sales for them and somehow truth as we've known it, okay? Because these three platforms are shaping how we feel. what we believe, who we trust, and without any separation of what is genuine, what is authentic, what is true, versus what is fake, what is synthetic, the future for our children looks quite confused and scary.

I mean, it's interesting you talk so much about who's claiming responsibility for the power, and I think there's a lot of, well, it's you, it's you, it's you, and It's not a new conversation whatsoever, right? Like not even here in the media zone. I know this has been a conversation on information integrity for some time, but there are tools that exist in the ecosystem. Charlotte, you were starting to talk a little bit about them earlier. There are principles, there are different efforts underway and a lot of global calls, especially recently, to make AI more responsible. What is working, if anything? And then you've started to talk about this a little bit, but I'd love to hear more about where the biggest gaps are, between where people are, in many cases, making commitments versus where the advertising dollars are still being spent.

Yeah, so, I mean, when it comes to the advertising piece, we have a long way to go. You're right, this is not the first time. I mean, we've sat here in this very zone, in fact, a year ago, discussing this issue. But what's been fascinating to me has been to see even the evolution in the past year since we last had a similar discussion. in terms of the receptiveness of many in the advertising community to our message. I would say, you know, we have these broad normative frameworks, you know, that the UN can put out. But the case we're making to advertisers, you know, the three of us have traveled extensively to many gatherings, right, where we try to speak to the community is, Look, this isn't a blame game when it comes to advertisers. We want to work with you. So we're here. We have civil society. We have others in the industry. We have organizations like the UN to help, to give you some of the tools and guidance you need to be able to do human rights responsible advertising. We don't expect everyone to be an expert on this. And that's why we're here. And we kind of want them to use us. So, I mean, one particular initiative that we've been working on recently as part of our global initiative for information integrity on climate change is a charter, right? And Jake's been leading on this charter for accountable advertising. In this case, specific to climate, but this is something work we're hoping to do more broadly, right? So we're literally... saying to advertisers, here are some of the steps you can take, right? Demanding transparency in the ad tech supply chain, taking back control of your ad dollars, right? Making sure your brand is safe. Now, we can make the moral case, of course, and we do. And I always go to these things and I speak to advertisers and I talk about, you know, the UN's goals and the global issues, the, you know, the SDGs and the really critical issues we're working on. But we're not naive, we know that we have to make the business case. So that's what we've been focused on doing. And that's where people like Reuben have really been very, and Jake of course, have been so useful because what we're saying to advertisers is, this isn't just the right thing to do, it is, but it's also, it really makes good business sense, right? You don't know where your ad dollars are going, so it's not brand safe, you don't know where your ads are ending up. Jake, you know, at this, an event we had this morning, a high level event on information integrity, Jake showed many examples of, you know, big brands next to content that was, you know, it was hard to even look at, frankly. So there's that, and then there's also just the effectiveness of their ad campaigns, right? And that's something we need more evidence about, we need more insights into, but we know from what we've seen from those in the industry that have shared their experiences with us, that actually they can increase their profits when they control where their ads are going, because in fact, their ad dollars are going into a bit of a black hole, and that's not really an effective kind of sales approach for them. So that's the kind of case we're making. do have a ways to go, but we're not asking anyone to do this without support.

If you're looking for attribution, you do need transparency to speak in the traditional marketing phrase.

And like Charlotte is saying, look, you cannot talk to businesses and stop at the moral case. But when you start going into better ad spend means stronger brands, more trusted brands, brands that aren't supporting or aren't next to a beheading video or a hate crime video. So better trust, more authentic connection with audiences, not 15% going into some opaque space called ad tech that can't be tracked. There's a genuine case for it is far more effective spend of your dollars when you demand transparency on what they are, where they are, and what is being shown when you spend them. So the entire case of following the money for marketeers, for businesses, for advertisers, I mean, I sit next to the UN, so obviously there is a model case. We want a world where well-being for all is their ultimate purpose, and yet we must accept that a lot of the companies have to report short-term returns on financial capital. And it goes hand in glove, the moral case and the business effectiveness case. I mean, it's the Peter Parker principle in business all over again, right, with great power of advertising dollars. And usually, I swear when I say this, but I shouldn't in a stage in the UN. With great power comes great freaking responsibility.

Just, just to pick up on that, uh, advertisers right at the top of the C-suite, so the chief marketing officer, the chief financial officer, should be asking really quick, clear questions of their supply chain and demanding transparency on the basis of effectiveness, but I would also say that self-regulation within the advertising community has utterly failed. So I think it's really important to say that, that, you know, there's been a lot of efforts at self-regulation and a lot of trade bodies have, have tried that, but it has utterly failed. So I think it is now beholding on, on governments. with clear human rights principles and respecting freedom of expression to mandate transparency through the advertising supply chain. So that would mean that people can know exactly what their ads are funding, exactly what harms their ads are funding, but also it can mandate transparency to verify advertisers. There are an awful lot of advertisers on the platforms that are not verified and defrauding people all over the world. And also transparent advertising libraries so we can see what advertising contains. So for example, the fossil fuel community or the fossil fuel industry spend billions on advertising. And again, it's unseen on digital platforms in most parts of the world. So mandating transparent advertising libraries should also be critical within this argument.

Yeah, I'm guessing

Everyone in this room has already at least one thing on their checklist that they can walk out of this conversation with as a next step. But I'd love to hear just making sure that this is as an actionable conversation as possible. If you're a brand, if you're an agency, if you're part of a platform, what are two or three things that you can walk away from this conversation with and do tomorrow, next week, in the next year to drive greater information transparency? And really at the end of the day, where should the money go?

Well, I'm glad you asked because the money can go to supporting public interest journalism, right? Information integrity is not possible without a free, independent, and pluralistic media. And we see the business model of independent media suffering, right, around the world. I mean, they're really struggling. And what we have heard from some in the ad industry is when they have taken back control of their ad dollars, when they have determined where their ad dollars are going, they can then put those ads to support independent media outlets, right? So, you know, to my mind, it's a win-win there. That's one thing they can do. They can demand the transparency that Jake was just talking about. And, you know, I'm sure Jake will get to it, but, you know, if they can adopt and follow the charter that we are going to be launching in the next couple of months, that charter, by the way, to Jake's point about self-regulation, is absolutely aimed at advertisers. also, there are recommendations for governments. Those are some things that they can do in the very short term.

If I was a brand, I would get together some critical C-suite actors. This is a reputation issue for the chief executive officer. It is a brand effectiveness issue for the chief marketing officer. In climate, it is a chief sustainability officer responsibility to understand what their their influence within their media supply chain on carbon, for example, as well. So I would get together with them, look at the global principles for information integrity. There's loads of guidance there. We also have further guides at the Conscious Advertising Network, which allow, you know, guides people on better questions and really to take responsibility of what I think is probably the most opaque trillion dollar supply chain possibly in the world. You wouldn't be like, you know, these clothes, for example, that there'll be a transparent supply chain to, you know, the to the clothes that we're wearing online in advertising that does not exist. And in AI, it also does not exist at all. We need to change that immediately.

I think, look, each one of us has a superpower. So if you're a content creator, there's a certain superpower you have. You're a media person, you work for the UN, I'm a marketeer. We need to use that superpower to move away from fear of finding out, for the ostrich phenomena and demand that whoever business is giving us some version of truth is authentic, is held accountable, and we are not part of the system that perpetuates. We're not caught up in this phenomena where we are the content that we hate. And it becomes a cycle of we don't even know what we read is true or not. So use your superpower and using your superpower, demand transparency. I mean, we used to do this. When we read a newspaper, we had a certain belief that whatever's printed in would be real. I could go somebody, I could hold somebody accountable. But somehow we've all accepted a world It's a real Truman Show. When we say, yeah, it could be true, it couldn't be true, but I'll still keep doomscrolling. So no matter what your superpower is, at least hold whoever is supplying you information accountable, to task, and not being able to get away with $18 million charitable contributions without taking any blame for the addiction economy they're building.

And can I just add one thing and that's about timing. Because I think as Rupin says, we don't actually have to accept the situation as it is. We've kind of got to this place where it's almost as though, well, this is just how the information ecosystem works. So what can I possibly do about it? When it comes to advertisers, we've had a lot of conversations with individuals in the ad industry who work for brands who are deeply concerned. They're concerned for their kids, quite honestly, they're concerned about what the young people of they are seeing, they're concerned about AI and what's gonna happen, right, in, in the near future. Um, I mean, the re- there's a reason we, we, we have AI in the title of this discussion today, partly because we don't want to make the same mistakes with AI technologies that we made when, you know, social was kind of, you know, beca- became mainstream. And now is the moment because we don't have a very big window. We don't have a big window when it comes to AI, and we don't have a big window when it comes to the climate crisis either. So we've seen a lot of hand-wringing, we hear a lot of concern, but we need to move from hand-wringing to actual action. And there's a true urgency there.

Yeah, I like that as a kind of closing note for us all. It's big, scary problems, but there is opportunity for all of us to participate in finding a solution, and all of the little choices along the way that really get us to the bigger change. So thank you all for sharing. Hope you all find these folks and get involved with this work. And thank you all for listening in.

Thanks, Liz.

All right, SDG Media Zone. Yeah, yeah. I feel there's a bit of a buzz in the room this afternoon, which is fantastic. Yeah. All right, because this is a very special segment of the SDG Media Zone here at UN General Assembly 81. I will remind folks, this is the 10th annual SDG Media Zone, and we're really excited to have the fourth day of it ending with this incredible conversation and premiere that we're going to see. And I think we all recognize that music and popular culture creates emotional connections to global issues and reach audiences far beyond traditional policy spaces. Those of you who've been inside will see those traditional policy conversations. And I think this conversation is gonna be a lot more fun than some of that stuff that's going on inside. Not to dismiss that stuff, it's absolutely critical, but this is better, right? Yeah, so our participants in today's events are Selwyn Hart, the special advisor to UN Secretary General on climate action and just transition. He's going to be joining us a little bit later. He's coming from one of those policy conversations, but we'll be here shortly, we're hoping. And Katja Iversen from the Museum of the United Nations, UNLIVE, been a good friend forever, right, Katja? Just to my right over here. Dr. Alan Dangour, who's the director of climate and health at Wellcome. Dr. Jasmine Alexander Nicholson, the executive director of the EarthGang Foundation. And then of course, dot and Alu, who are EarthGang, who we can't wait to see that. But we're going to get started with Gabriel Smells from UNLIVE. He was joined us here to get us going. The floor is yours, Gabriel.

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to the global launch of Cool Me Down by EarthGang and Nature. My name is Gabriel Smales, I'm the Global Program Director for Sounds Right at the Museum for the United Nations, UNLIVE. We created Sounds Right because for a long time we've been entertained with a central paradox. And that is, if you were to ask a random person on the street what they thought of nature, they probably rank it as one of the most valuable things to them in their life. And yet we live in an economic system that's systematically destroying nature. So we decided to use culture and in particular music to spread the message that nature can be better valued in our society. And what's more, support young people to take action simply by listening to the music that they love. So back in 2024, we launched Sounds Right at the United Nations alongside our partners, Earth Percent, AKQA, and Spotify, with a central mission that nature should be better valued in our society and artists should be given platforms to engage their audiences about that critical issue. And since then, I'm delighted to say that there's been over half a billion streams, generating over $1.2 million for frontline conservation. That's conservation delivered by indigenous and community leaders around the world. And what's more, we've been pushing the public discourse about how we can better value nature in our society. So, so far, over 600 media outlets have covered the story of nature being an artist with a potential audience of 4.2 billion people. And within that, 30 million people have taken action simply by listening to the music they love. And that's really key to the thesis, that we can invite young people, meet them where they are, whether it's the phones in their pockets or the music in their ears, and to take action by doing something joyful and build a sense of agency that they can be part of the solution. So today I am delighted to be here at the United Nations during this critical General Assembly week to celebrate a piece of hopeful music with you all. We're not powerless against the health impacts of climate change and this song that you're about to hear today is an optimistic reminder of that. Cool Me Down was made possible by Wellcome, Their creative and cultural advocacy team have been in this from the very start, from a conversation about how to translate the science into a resonant piece of music that can travel beyond borders. Extreme heat is one climate impact that nobody needs to have explained to them. You feel it when you try and sleep, when you're at work, when you think about who to check in on, and that's where EarthGang started, and that's what you're going to hear today. But first, we'd like to show you a three minute film explaining how and why we made this track.

Baby, can you cool me down, cool me down? Baby, can you cool me down, cool me down?

But the beat to me kind of also gave like a nighttime vibe with the cricket. Oh yeah, the crickets. Because like the auditory gets, the more people going to be up at night. And the question remains, can we cool the earth down? What's up y'all, Johnny Venus here, AKA Olu. I'm about to break down how I created this beat for "Cool Me Down" Earthgang featuring Nature. Let me play this bar for y'all. He got bars. He the black thought of all. It's a perfect sound, right? It's OD. So, if you know anything about Georgia, you know cicadas is real. So I added that to this part of the beat. And like, you know what I'm saying, the idea behind it was to make this junk fun. And the little woodpecker right here, let me... Oh man, this sound really cool, man, cool productions. Birds always got the best production. So producers out there use bird sounds. And, you know, that's how we got this rhythm. We all love Mother Nature. We love going outside. We love partying and dancing. We love having a good time. And, you know, it's a celebration for the world that we live in.

Cool me down Baby, can you Too hot, too hot, too hot, yeah It's hot, too hot, too hot, too hot, yeah Ain't too hot, there's a fever up in this spot I'm chilling like what, uh Too hot, too hot, too hot, yeah It's hot, too, too, too, too, too, too, too, too hot, yeah.

Fantastic. Yeah, yesterday, if you were in Times Square, you would have seen one of the biggest billboards there celebrating this new track. And we actually convinced a rickshaw driver to play it, and we started a mini rave in the middle of the square. It was pretty great. So it's my great, great pleasure to introduce you all to first my colleague, Emeiza Nguera, who's the associate director for Sounds Right at UNLIVE. And then the main protagonists in this whole thing, Olu and dot from Earthgang. Over to you guys.

Mic check.

Hello.

Check, check, check.

Hello, everybody. Hey. Yeah, loose and love, say what's up?

All right, well, thank you so much for being here today and creating such a magical track. In this segment, we're going to be going into the mystery of what it takes to make a song, but first, Besides being a Grammy-nominated duo, my favorite part of your bio says, "EarthGang is not your average hip-hop duo." Tell us more about that.

Yeah, I mean, I would say essentially we're just music nerds first. So we, I mean, obviously we rap when we can, but we also both play a variety of instruments. We like a lot of different music. We met in high school during the pirating music days. We downloaded a bunch of stuff and created a little fan club and our fan club turned to our actual day job. So we explore all avenues of sound.

And we also do things like this. I mean, this is our second time here at the UN and we're finding ways to not only have fun with music, but have fun with impact in the world.

Now that's actually amazing, merging the talent and the attitude and the fun for impact. So let's get into the song. I have inside information that the hook we heard with the diva choir, that's what came first. How did that come about?

We got the briefing from you all, and in my mind, it was like, you know, we want to make something that's fun, but we don't want it to be preachy, we don't want it to feel like somebody's wagging their finger, and we also don't want to feel like we're in school either, you know what I'm saying, like we're trying to like, We want to be impactful, but like just put a little medicine inside a bowl of honey, you know what I'm saying, and give it out. So, I mean, it's simple, cool me down. I think that's what Mother Earth is asking from all of us, you know, it's like in some way, shape or form, can you do your part? And then we reached out to some ladies that we know in Atlanta, a lot of them are from the diaspora, you know what I'm saying? So they're from different places that are also being affected by climate change. And we asked them, you don't have to be singers, you don't have to be professional, just come and sing. And we wanted to be very universal. So they pulled up, we had a good time, and that was the foundation.

Yeah, I love that. I love the energy that that was infusing into the track. Let's talk about community. You cheekily mentioned something about a brief here, and so let me let the room in. Part of the track creation process involved sitting down with scientists from Wellcome and learning more about extreme heat, how it affects people, what lived experiences look like, so that that could inform what was eventually going to come out in the track. And in some of those conversations, we learned about community and how checking in could be the difference between whether a vulnerable person or an old person actually lives or dies during an extreme heat situation. At the same time, Earthgang Foundation also centers community in what you do. So could you talk to us about how you've seen the power of community changing someone's life or changing someone's action living beyond the music?

I think community has been pretty essential to human success since the dawn of humans. I think we're getting to a place now where we tend to forget that, and it's not necessarily our fault, like individually, but it is our fault as a whole, and it is our responsibility as a whole to keep community as a core focus in how we move.

Cool. Thank you for sharing that. Onto the last question before we get to hear the track in full. What would you like listeners to pay attention to? That could be musically, in the nature sounds. What do you want people to listen out for in the track?

Definitely the nature sounds, the birds, the bugs, the things around us that us making music every day that we don't always count as music. And the lyrics, I mean, He's saying it in a fun way, but these are pretty potent lyrics. He's saying, "Been all around the world, can't escape the heat." I think wherever you were this summer, you can agree it was particularly hot. It was more than usual. So I think the lyrics are there to unify us all in the same kind of thinking.

All right, without further ado, let us cue the track, DJ.

Baby, can you cool me down, cool me down?

It's okay if you wanna dance, you don't have to be shy. We not judging.

Baby, can you cool me down, cool me down me down, cool me down, too hot.

Too hot We still need a dance, like a signature dance for the song. So if anybody out there got, you know, got some moves. Cool, hot, too hot. Your hotel room or something, figure something out, you know what I'm saying?

Okay, I like what you got going. Yeah. Too hot, too hot.

Too hot, too hot, too hot. Hit the fever up in the spot I'm chillin' like what up Too hot, too hot, too hot.

Move your body to the breeze Too hot, how many degrees Been all around the world A couple times, still can't escape the heat Longer days and longer nights Amplify my energy This could be the year we change it all Let's make some memories Let me rock your hips like a ocean wave A tsunami on me, baby, I can't be saved One step at a time, I ain't in no rush I'm clutch, I ain't always well, but hey Cool down, cool down, cool down, cool down Too hot, too hot, too hot, too hot, cool down, cool down, cool down, cool down, too hot, too hot, too hot.

Baby, can you cool me down, cool me down? Baby, can you cool me down, cool me down? Too hot, too hot, too hot. Baby, can you cool me?

98 degrees out because of you Fire from the way you do what you do Sun go down and it's back outside again Ice your collarbone, icing up your skin We can't leave 'til the party's over These days we be out all night Before we run out of time Baby, can you make it right?

Before we run out of time Can you make it right? think that's critical to think about?

Cool me down, cool me down Baby, can you Cool me down, cool me down Baby, can you Cool me down Cool me down I ain't too hot Feel the fever up in the spine I'm chilling like what, uh Too hot, too hot, too hot Yeah, it's hot, got a fever up in this spot I'm chilling like what I'm, too hot, too hot, too hot I ain't too hot, got a fever up in this spot I'm chilling like what, I'm, too hot, too hot, too hot, yeah

All right. Thank you.

All right, I mean. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I mean, I know the track is cool me down, but I think if we turn this into a dance floor, it might heat the place up a little bit. So maybe we'll do that a little bit later. I didn't expect to be back up here, but I am here to deliver the regrets of Selwyn Hart, who was unable to make it. As I indicated, he is stuck in a policy conversation. But I have my colleague, David Pedroza, here with me, who happens to write Selwyn's talking points. So I think he knows what Selwyn would have said. And he's going to do some paraphrasing of Selwyn's remarks. So, David, I know this is off the cuff, step up, take it on unexpectedly, but thanks for being willing to do it.

Thanks, Rob. And don't worry, I'm not planning on dancing. So Like Rob said, Selwyn sends his regrets. He's seen one of many, many policy discussions that are taking place this year at the United Nations. But working with Selwyn and with United Nations colleagues across the system on climate change, I know that extreme heat is really top of mind for all of us. It's not just-- it is no longer just some distance of or abstract consequence of climate change. We're all living it, we're all feeling it, even some people are dying from it. Extreme heat is not just one hazard among many, but it is one of the clearest and most immediate links between climate change and human health. It affects how we work, it affects our children, our communities, our economies. But yet much of the language that we use in the climate space can feel very far removed from that lived reality. So, and I can say that as a communicator, but initiatives like this, like what Gabriel is doing, EarthGang taking their time and their voice on this initiative, I think it's really powerful and it's exactly what we need to continue getting this message across as the fight continues. So thank you for everyone and I leave the floor to our next panelist. Thank you.

Thanks a lot. I'm Katja Iversen. I'm the CEO of the Museum for the United Nations, UNLIVE, and thrilled to be here with the panel that I'm going to introduce in a minute. Culture, it's everywhere. Sometimes it seems as a nice wrapping, but it's so much more than that. It is infrastructure. It is what makes us feel, think and do. That's what we do at UN Live, try to engage the many millions of people in the hottest topics of our time, engage and take action. And if we talk about one of the hottest topics of our time, I think, you know, extreme heat, climate, global health. So it is a great pleasure to introduce a panel. You already met two of them, Olu and Doc. Can I also introduce Alan from Wellcome Trust? He's the Director of Health and Climate. And Dr. Jas, Dr. Jasmine from the EarthGang Foundation. So there's a mic for you here, Dr. Jaz. So, Alan, can I start with you? What is this big deal about extreme heat? What's the science? Why is it important?

So I'll go there, but before I go there, I said I'm not going on the stage with these guys. I'm going to look a right prat. And they said, no, there's going to be a UN guy. You won't look as bad as him, but he's not even here. Anyway. To more serious matters. So the link between climate change and health is now abundantly clear. You've seen this summer what happens when the world heats up. You've seen that. We call it a silent killer. Extreme heat last year killed an estimated 550,000 people around the world. And that's just, those are the people that die. Loads of people go into hospital because they get overheated, because they get dehydrated, because they get heat stress. We know that pregnant women exposed to extreme heat are much more likely to have their child early, preterm birth. And preterm birth leads to all sorts of problems for the child and for the mother. We also know that older people really struggle in heat, but it's not just the vulnerable people who struggle in heat. It's, you know, it's the healthy guy, the healthy girl who goes to a Taylor Swift concert. It's the athletes, the college school athletes here in the UK, dozens of them have died, in the US rather, dozens of whom have died over the last few years from heat exhaustion. Heat is a killer. And we know from the evidence and we know from your powerful graphics in the earlier that heat is just gonna, that we are heading into an incredibly hot future. So we've got to find those solutions that help us respond to that and adapt to the future. Cool me down.

Thanks a lot. And so now you're the science guy, you know, and you're not boring, I know that. So But, and Wellcome is an amazing foundation, but you've been really heavy on research. Now you invest in culture and music, but why?

So I often say this, but if the climate crisis was gonna be solved by writing papers in academic journals, we would have no climate crisis. There are thousands and thousands of papers every year, every week, that are produced on climate change and where we're going and the links to human health and yet we're still in this crisis. So what do we need to do? We need to take that science out of the journals, out of the academic literature and talk about it and raise and use culture and engage with people. So this is a fantastic example of how powerful culture can be, you know, taking the evidence, stories and making them human, you know, making them accessible, making them real, you know, making them something that just happens as part of what you do in your daily life. You know, you talk about it, hey, did you hear that really cool song? You know, hey, that was cool. Anyway, that really cool song, you know, did you hear it? You know, just making it, making it real. What we really need to do is have a revolution.

Yay.

And we're not going to have a revolution by publishing papers in journals. It's just not going to happen. We're going to have a revolution when that science comes out of the journals into the hand of people, people are talking about it, people engage with it, and people demand action. This is how you do it.

Fabulous. Fabulous. It can make us feel, and feeling is the foundation for action. Great. Thank you. on, Don. Back to you. We spoke a little bit about the song before, but you have also built an incredible platform. You're famous and all of that, and that kind of helps build that platform. But climate change can be so easy to tune out of, because when we talk about 1.5 degrees, that's difficult to feel. But what is it that What is it that you have done here and what have you learned in this process about what actually works in getting the community going?

I think that there are two things. Make it fun and make it immediately actionable. So we started a community garden. at the middle school that feeds into our high school. Our main goal was to provide access to students so they can do something with their hands, they can enjoy a part of school that's unorthodox, they can mess up, they can play, right? But to give them an immediately actionable thing where it's like, okay, I'm learning, I'm understanding how the planet works, I'm understanding the necessities of rainwater and sunlight and all of these things. So that's one thing. And then with the music, with this song that we just did, one, we tried to make, you know, a fun song, something that people can just enjoy. And by pressing play and listening to it, you are donating money to climate change efforts, you know, so those types of things is really what we want to do.

And you heard a little bit about it from Gabriel before. Every time this track runs, royalties will go back to Nature Solutions. So just kind of put it on all night.

Go to sleep and just let it play on you.

Just let it play. Find the owl, find the chickadees, let them play. And you're doing good just by listening. I just have to say, when I heard it the first time, I was kind of, I come from the UN, like as if it's a planet. And I was kind of, oh my God, that's a little sassy. Is it too sassy? So, but you know, kind of, now I've heard it, I think, a hundred times and I absolutely love it. So, Dr. Jazz, from the Earth Gang Foundation. You have been on a journey, sweetheart, from scientists, in my, you know, kind of doctor in environmental studies and now you run Earth Gang Foundation and really work deep in the community. Would you talk to me a little bit about or us about that journey and what it is that you do in the foundation?

Yes, I graduated with my PhD in environmental science from HBCU in the South, FAMU and in 2023, the guys, I was a bit of a radical vegan. I was throwing parties, having events, doing cleanups, anything to really get the message across about anything that related to environmental justice or food insecurity. So they were like, as you help us with our foundation, we got this garden, we're trying to get it popping. And that's exactly what we did. We filed for our nonprofit status, and we've been rocking out since. And I really feel like what has been a big, it is contributor to the success of the foundation, not only having them as our leadership, and their impact on culture, but the community of Atlanta itself. Climate change isn't something that's just points on a data sheet anymore. It's something that you feel when you walk outside. It's not the same. And there's older generations definitely can attest to that. But specifically in Atlanta, I feel like the foundation, people of the foundation and volunteers and people who come to our events really connect because they feel like they have a voice. They feel like, oh, coming to this. Whether it's donating money, having a drink, partying with us, or coming to our community action events, they feel like they have a voice and they feel like what they're doing actually matters. And the city of Atlanta really has been a wonderful home to the foundation and really a home to where people understand that climate change is real. and that we can do something about it. And shout out to our mayor, Mayor Andre Dickens is vice chair of the Climate Mayors. It's a network of 350 mayors across America, and he's leading that charge. And just the leadership in Atlanta in general really understands that the world is changing, but we can be a part of it. We can be a part of a positive change and it doesn't always have to be doom and gloom. We could party, we could drink, we could have a great time, we can dance, but we can also do all of this for a purpose.

Thank you. And also thanks for, thanks for pointing out that sustainable development and a sustainable future is not just brown, bleak, and gray, but it can actually be wonderful and fun and green. And we speak a lot at UNLIVE about creating a sense of belonging. And it's both, you know, we want to make global cooperation cool again. And we want to really create that sense of global belonging, what we call a global we. And what you're doing is also creating that local we around things that matter. And things that matter is what can create that. How do we make a connection between the local we and the global we? And what role can culture play there?

Music. I would let them speak more on that. But culture, to me, that's the biggest thing, just having something that is tangible, particularly this song, like anyone can just listen.

Definitely, I would say, as she said, music. I mean, we were on FaceTime calls and group meets with Imenza, who is representing from Kenya, and you know what I'm saying, other people representing, what was the doctor from? the scientist from the UK. Yeah. So, there he is. So he was teaching us like literally we were having a breakdown of like what's going on and he was just giving us all this information and it's like, you know, from our own individual efforts and our own, you know, sales, we got a chance to connect and then bring that here, you know what I'm saying, to this global forum. So music is a great way to connect the dots.

Global local we and a great connector. So what happens next? Alan, what have you learned in this process and what's going to happen next?

So, great question. And I was going to say my boss isn't here, but I think the cat's out of the bag now that we've funded this song. The We're going to continue doing this. I'm convinced that it is so important that we tell stories that are engaging, that people can understand, that people care about, because we've got to, the climate crisis is such, going to have such an enormous impact on our health and our ways of life. We can sit and watch it happen, or we can do something about it. I'm voting for let's do something about it, and I'm also voting for let's do something which we can do together as families, but as communities as well, as we've just heard how powerful that can be. And let's ask our politicians to get on and act. And I think what we, you know, the science is, Wellcome will always fund the science. The science is really important underpinning evidence that we need to make the case. And you can make the case in lots of different ways. You can make the case by talking to your politicians, you can make the case by coming to the UN, you can make the case by taking legal action, you can do all sorts of, but you can also make the case using culture. And I think increasingly we're seeing how important culture is at this time when it brings people together, makes connections across different groups and different communities, and it's a really powerful way of delivering and accelerating action.

Well, you know, wonderful to have the science and scientists here as well. And I think this is a great example of a, I don't know if it's properly at the UN and in health discussion, talk about a powerful cocktail, you know, of science, culture, community, funding, and an organization like UNLIVE, but also all the other fantastic organizations and platforms that's behind Sounds Right. you know, Spotify is here, I think, Hannah, wave, yes, you know, kind of great collaboration on really putting the tracks out, whether it's nature tracks or it's the music tracks. Also Earth Percent, who's kind of taking, you know, doing a lot of the music. So great, great partners. It takes It takes a village of the more fun ones, because I also think this is a great example, and Alan, thanks for also alluding to it, that collaboration can actually be fun. All right, if I speak, what's next?

I would say more of this. I would say, first, we got to get this song to as many people we need to hear it as possible. Especially the younger crowd. If you grew up with an iPad, you need to hear this because y'all will be affected the most by climate change. You know what I'm saying? Because y'all gonna be here when it happens. So that's the truth. Can we get this track over to Mom Donnie as soon as we can? Let's get it to some places where people are already looking. If we can spread the message and grow the community with it, I think that's our next goal, is to see how far we can take this.

Yeah, and can I just say, #coolmedown, #soundswrite. So get it out there. Take all the photos, take all the video, get it out and push it. Because commit to sharing it at least with five people, and your grandma can be one of them.

Get your grandma shaking.

Yeah. Dr. Jess, what's next? Also, for you and the communities. What do you need?

I need everyone to go vote.

Amen.

What we need. Yes, communities, we can lead our own solutions, but it is so important for everyone to go vote if we really want to make a change. That's what I need everybody to do.

Yeah. Mobilize and get the politicians who will also push the science and what we have. So Time flies when we're having fun. Any last comments from any of you on this?

Can I just say thank you because this is quite an ask. I mean, the scientists, Rob is great, really great, but getting a scientist, having to listen to him think about what he's going to say, use the evidence. It's not an easy thing. And I bet you're obviously incredibly talented. So thank you very much for taking on the challenge. We'll have a harder one for you next time.

Take on fossil fuels.

So, so in climate science, we, we, we measure in degrees. When it comes to connection between humans, we also measure in degrees. And I think the thing about six degrees of separation is long gone. But there's also that connection and degree of from what we know, to what we feel, to what we do. And we now have all the components here to close because

been a gap from what we know to what we feel to what we do. I do believe that music, yeah, culture at large, can help put that together so we can close some of the other gaps we have. So the culture can help us feel why things matters. Science can give us the evidence. Community can tell us what it means in real people's lives. And systems can help turn that understanding into a sustainable change into action. So a song cannot cool a city, but it can help us feel why we need to do it. I want to say thanks to Alan, thanks to Oron dot, thanks to Dr. Jaz, Gabriel, Imensa, who's made all of this happen together with an amazing Rebecca and Antje and Thea at Wellcome. But the partners from the whole Sounds Right. And if I may also say thank you to the STG Media Sound Team, that is absolutely wonderful. And and to rob my old partner in good crime, Trouble. But thanks a lot, "Cool Me Down." Are we gonna hear it again and dance it out? All right, all right, thanks a lot.

You gotta dance this time, though.

Baby, can you cool me down, cool me down?

I so skiin' like I took ya, drop that thing, rollercoaster Wave that fan like I showed ya, come on, let 'em know I so skiin' like I took ya, drop that thing, Rollercoaster, wave that fan like I showed ya, come on, let 'em.