Bristol joins cities around the world taking part in 'World's To-Do List' campaign

Bristol has joined cities from around the world uniting to reinforce their commitment to tackling the biggest challenges facing the world – climate change, inequality and poverty – and achieving the UN’s Global Goals for Sustainable development.  

The ‘World’s To-Do List campaign,' driven by Project Everyone, is taking place as world leaders meet in New York for the UN General Assembly. It underlines the need for greater concerted action to deliver the UN’s Global Goals, which were agreed by 193 world leaders to build a greener, fairer, better world by 2030.

The campaign reimagines the UN’s Global Goals as a series of 17 playful, yet profound, sticky notes. Physical and digital activations are taking place in cities around the world, including Barcarena, Bogota, Bristol, Cannes, Doha, Durban, Freetown, Liverpool, London, Londrina, Mexico City, Milan, New York and Yokohoma.

The World’s To-Do List, which launched last September, was adopted by the C40, a global network of Mayors, in June this year as part of London Climate Action Week under the leadership of the Mayor of London and Chair of C40 Cities, Sadiq Khan. The campaign aims to highlight the global impact of local action and the need to unlock finance and technical assistance to support city leaders to achieve the Global Goals.  

Bristol City Council believes that Bristol can bring about change and connect to others around the globe by using the Global Goals framework, including Goal 10 - ‘Reducing Inequality.' 

While Bristol is rightly proud to be a diverse and global city, the Council understands that more must be done to tackle inequality, so that everyone has the opportunity to live well. As One City, an approach that brings together a huge range of public, private, voluntary and third sector partners within Bristol, their aim is to 'make Bristol a fair, healthy and sustainable city of hope and aspiration, where everyone can share in its success.' 

This approach is underlined by the One City Plan and boards working on a wide range of areas. Greater insight as to how Bristol is progressing across the 17 Global Goals will be published tomorrow, Friday 23 September, in the updated Voluntary Local Review. 

For the global week of action, Bristol based artist Richt has produced a creative interpretation for the ‘World’s To-Do List’ through the lens of Goal 10, ‘Reduced Inequalities.’ Partners including Socius, Bristol Ideas and Visit West, as well as Project Everyone, have supported the mural development to represent Bristol’s commitment to hope and change.

Drawing on concerns identified in the VLR around poverty and the extent to which this is affecting citizens, Richt considers the cost-of-living crisis by illustrating a collective tension and frustration. With soaring costs throughout the UK for basic amenities, we are shown economic icons precariously balanced moments before potential collapse.

“If you continually take from the bottom instead of the top, you’re gonna knock the whole thing over" - Richt. 

As hotbeds for innovation, education, and creativity, cities hold the keys to tackling the climate emergency and achieving the UN’s Global Goals. More than one-half of the world’s inhabitants currently live in cities, a statistic set to rise to two-thirds by 2050. Mayors therefore play a critical role in responding to the challenges and opportunities presented by a rising urban population.

This message is reinforced in a film produced by Project Everyone, which was screened before world leaders during the 2022 UN General Assembly.

Partners have also rallied behind the campaign: Vice Media will donate digital space across their portfolio, and in the UK, the Financial Times, Ocean Media and Open Media are gifting media space in support of the campaign.

Project Everyone, the C40, key Mayors and other partners will continue to work together to build on the momentum of the campaign, including at the C40 Summit in Buenos Aires in October and the climate change conference, COP27, being held in Egypt in November.

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol said: “The Sustainable Development Goals have become a common language for cities delivering social and environmental justice. In Bristol, 5000 workers have received a pay rise onto the Real Living Wage and we have secured £424 million of clean energy investment. As One City, we’ve made good progress but there’s still more to do. Richt’s new mural highlights the importance of fighting inequalities – a vivid part of The World’s To-Do List campaign to raise awareness about the Global Goals."

Mike Dodd, Project Director at Socius said:“As a business with a long-term commitment to Bristol, we are pleased to support the Global Goals campaign to educate everyone about the challenges we face and collaborate to bring about the change that is needed. We hope that this engaging work of art located at our project, Soapworks, in Old Market will act as a useful reminder to everyone about the part we all have to play to create a cleaner, greener and fairer world by 2030."