New York, 23 May 2022 (TDI): The President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen took part in a discussion at the Global Citizen Now Summit to address the present-day interrelated challenges.
Glad to take part in a lively discussion at #GlobalCitizenNOW, on addressing today’s interrelated challenges.
Important to bring together government, cultural and business leaders to discuss defeating poverty, protecting the planet and joining forces to support Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/u2ATD2O1CF
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 22, 2022
‘The Urgency of Now’ talk
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen joined Cisco Chair & CEO Chuck Robbins and Global Citizen’s co-founder and CEO Hugh Evans as part of “The Urgency of Now” talk, moderated by Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski.
The panel explored how the private and public sectors has to work together. Thus, to make flexible and nimble frameworks for action when partnering in response to overlapping crises.
They gave an example in reference to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was outlined that Global Citizen shifted its focus to raise funds for personal protective equipment and vaccine availability.
Also, building connections with governmental and corporate leaders as well as the artist community to bring about these new goals was discussed.
Thereby, in response to the crisis of COVID-19, the Global Citizen’s One World: Together At Home concert put together 127.9 million dollars.
Due to more than 276 million people facing severe hunger globally, the number could closely double because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
More to this, the war has threatened the production of food in two of the most important crop exporters in the world.
Currently, the European Union is accelerating its transition away from fossil fuels to deprive the Russian government of an important source of revenue.
Most importantly, she highlighted that war, climate change, and the global food crisis are part of the most serious issues.
The President stated that it is important to unite government, cultural and business leaders to discuss defeating poverty, protecting the planet, and joining forces in supporting Ukraine.
Global Citizen
Global Citizen mainly works towards defeating poverty and also on climate action and demanding equity.
Firstly, over 700 million people are currently living in extreme poverty in the world and Global Citizen calls for action to change this.
Secondly, it calls for Climate action because the world’s poorest people suffer more from the climate crisis despite contributing to it in the least.
Accordingly, climate change affects people’s health as well as access to nutritious food and livelihoods.
Lastly, it demands equity in that every person ought to have an equal chance to live up to their full potential.
