What we need more of in 2024
With an eye on the year ahead, Director of Corporate Partnerships Nicky O’Malley outlines her wishlist for action that benefits people and planet.
The start of a new year feels like a great time to reflect on achievements and feel inspired to set goals for the year ahead. At Global Action Plan, we are proud of the positive impact of our work across our Clean Air, Online Climate and Generation Action movements, as highlighted in our recent 2023 impact report. We’re looking forward to all that we can achieve in the year ahead, mobilising people and organisations to take action on the systems that harm us and our planet.
Our work is urgent, and we know that we need to act to create necessary change. Just last week, the World Economic Forum released their Global Risks Report, which highlighted the huge need for systems-level change at the intersection of people and planetary health. It can seem overwhelming to see the risks to our collective future laid out so clearly, but taking action can be an antidote to that.
To deliver on our big ambitions for the year ahead, we are focusing our efforts on the vital areas where systems change is critically needed, and where others can get involved and work collaboratively with us for the greatest impact on a positive future.
Here’s what we believe we need more of in 2024.
We need a world with clean air where people and planet are prioritised over profit and pollution
Our Director of Clean Air, Larissa Lockwood and team achieved great strides last year, not least having the right for all children to breathe clean air recognised by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We already have two big dates in the diary for 2024, with Clean Air Night coming up on Wednesday 24 January and Clean Air Day happening on Thursday 20 June. Our UK goal of everyone in urban areas being able to breathe clean air by 2030 is the driving ambition behind the team.
We need a world where dominant online technologies promote democracy and action on the climate and ecological crisis
Our Online Climate team led the charity coalition supporting Dove’s Cost of Beauty campaign – which featured a highly emotive and powerful film about the impact of social media on girls in particular. This year, work continues towards our ambitious goal of an online climate that nurtures democracy and compassion.
We have some exciting news coming soon on the next phase of our partnership working in this space and next steps on how people, communities, businesses and organisations can get involved with us.
We need a world where every child leaves school prepared to act collectively for the good of people and planet
2023 was a bumper year of award wins for our Generation Action team, who were celebrated for our partnership with Unilever empowering young changemakers around the world to take action on issues they care about. We picked up a Global Good Award and were named Corporate Partnership of the Year at the Third Sector Awards. This year our focus is on building on that success and expanding our work empowering and equipping a generation of young people with the inclination and ability to transform our world.
If you’re passionate about improving the air we breathe, making the online world a safer place, or enabling young people to become lifelong planetary stewards, do get in touch with me to find out more about how we can work collaboratively to create a better future for us all.