2020 UN Global Climate Action Award : Daily Current Affairs

2020 UN Global Climate Action Award

An Indian organization that leverages tourism and technology to help remote community’s access solar energy has won a prestigious UN award for its efforts to combat climate change amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) is among the winners of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Award.
According to a statement on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, GHE is the one of the world’s first outfit using tourism and technology to bring solar energy to remote communities as recognized by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
The UN Global Climate Action Awards are spearheaded by the Momentum for Change initiative at UN Climate Change. The projects are recognized as innovative solutions that not only address climate change but also help drive progress on many other sustainable development goals. The 2020 winning activities were selected by an international advisory panel as part of the UN Climate Change’s Momentum for Change initiative.

UNFCCC stands for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Convention has near universal membership (197 Parties) and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep the global average temperature rise this century as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The secretariat was established in 1992 when countries adopted the UNFCCC. The original secretariat was in Geneva. Since 1995, the secretariat has been located in Bonn, Germany.

GHE conducts “Impact Expeditions” to remote Himalayan villages and uses a portion of the expedition fee to fund the capital cost of the hardware, transportation, installation and training of village-scale solar micro-grids.
The micro-grid infrastructure set up by GHE is owned and operated by the community.

To date, the GHE has solar electrified more than 131 villages in three regions of India, directly impacting the lives of more than 60,000 villagers.
More than 1,300 travelers from 60 different countries have been a part of these expeditions. Enabling livelihood through homestay tourism has generated over USD 114,000 in income for the villages, which represents a 45 per cent increase in the annual household income.

Covid-19 has altered lives, economies and the nature of business on every continent from the largest cities to the smallest villages. It is the most urgent threat faced by humanity in present times, but we cannot forget that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity over the long term.
The recipients of the UN Global Climate Action Awards send a strong political signal to all nations, and through their leadership and creativity, we see essential change.