Thank you for your support our upcoming Build Community hackathon focusing on Climate Change.

The Hackathon Problem statement is:  
What digital solutions can be developed to improve education, raise awareness and ignite human and institutional capacity around climate change? Some examples could include climate change in the areas of food, energy, transportation, consumption, and the built environment (cities).

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“How irrational it is that that there are countries actually burning more coal and using less solar than they were a decade ago – even as the costs of clean energy have plummeted well below fossil fuel. To paraphrase Einstein – Insanity is continuing to do something that will kill you, even when you know it will. We can’t afford a world so divided in its response to the climate crisis when the evidence is so compelling for action. We have to make choices – together. Life is about choices; you all know that – everybody does; so is governing; so is leading, so this moment requires.” These are the remarks of John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

Vanessa Nakate, one of the young climate activists who were chosen to speak at the COP25 gathering in Spain, said “The world cannot go back to what it used to be. We need to build systems that are more inclusive for everyone. We need to address the issue of climate change and leaders need to take climate action. We need new investments in renewable energy. We need to build systems that ensure basic needs for everyone…Now is the time to value lives like never before. We need a complete turnaround.”

At last year’s COP26 Climate Summit, Sir David Attenborough said: “Our burning of fossil fuels, our destruction of nature, our approach to industry, construction and learning, are releasing carbon into the atmosphere at an unprecedented pace and scale. We are already in trouble. The stability we all depend on is breaking…. Ultimately, all of us will feel the impact, some of which are now unavoidable. Perhaps the fact that the people most affected by climate change are no longer some imagined future generation, but young people alive today, perhaps that will give us the impetus we need to rewrite our story, to turn this tragedy into a triumph.... A new industrial revolution, powered by millions of sustainable innovations, is essential, and is indeed already beginning. We will all share in the benefits. Affordable, clean energy, healthy air and enough food to sustain us all... Can we fix the climate problem in one generation? My answer would be, yes, we have to.”

The 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Goal 13 is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

There are specific targets for each goal, along with indicators that are being used to measure progress toward each target. One of these for SDG 13 is ‘improving education, awareness- raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning’. What digital solutions can be developed to achieve this?

The mentor session commitments are as follows:
Mentor Briefing: 17th March 2022 - Thursday 10:00 - 10:30
Mentor Hackathon Session 1: 19th March 2022 - Saturday 11:00 - 13:00
Mentor Hackathon Session 2: 20th March 2022 - Sunday 10:00 - 11:00

Please complete in this Mentor form so that we can upload your details onto the website (https://www.buildcommunityhackathons.co.za/mentors.html) for our hackathon attendees to see.

For any queries please contact Lianne Akal on liannedt@gmail.com or 082 498 0981.