Making progress requires more than idealism and vision. It is also necessary to mobilise people, strengthen change agents and create alliances of likeminded. People only take action when they know something needs to change.

When people are directly affected by climate change because there is no food, this need is very clear. However, for many people in the Western world and in cities such as Amsterdam, the urgency is less felt. At the same time producers and consumers in our city have a big ecological footprint and responsibility.

I am convinced that we need to change our behaviour and we need to increase awareness in order to make sure that future generations can live a healthy life on this planet. We do not only need to do this personally, but also our governments and companies should be held accountable.

Civil society organisations are the watchdogs and help to make voices of people (sometimes far away) being heard. That is why I am proud to be part of an international network of women and environmental organisations, called WECF). Change is only sustainable when women's rights are respected and their voices are being heard.

As a citizen of Amsterdam and inhabitant of Nieuw-West I am eager to make a local contribution to increase awareness on the Sustainable Development Goals and set up new actions together with key-actors in my neighbourhood. We need to connect the global Sustainable Development Goals much better to local perspectives and ideas for action.

There is so much that can be done and there are many more people that can be activated in the fight for a just and clean world!