Every year, thousands of campaigners, businessmen, diplomats and everything inbetween descend upon New York City for Climate Week. In recent years, the week has carried particular significance as it coincided with United Nations General Assembly meetings where climate change was a top agenda item. This year, while the UN focused heavily on a number of other issues including the global migration crisis, the discussions of Climate Week focused on a wide range of issues that lie under the vast climate umbrella.

Shifting investments away from fossil fuels and towards the renewables was one topic. Figuring out the best ways to deploy solar power to the developing world as soon as possible was brought up in other venues. Making sure countries hold true to their commitments of Paris was the focus of many events, while working with Wall Street to figure out how to get fossil fuel companies to disclose their carbon risks was another common topic of the many discussions taking place in New York City during the third week of September. Of course, the topics were all connected by climate change, but there was another connection running through all these event: storytelling.

Everyone has a story to tell when it comes to climate change, and getting those stories out to the masses is clearly a priority for those calling for climate action. There’s a real story for everyone: from the investors on Wall Street to the families putting solar panels on rooftops near Main Street.

Image credit: Years of Living Dangerously

Nowhere was the power of climate storytelling on bigger display during Climate Week than during a screening of season two of National Geographic’s Years of Living Dangerously series at the Museum of Natural History. As far as celebrity power and the environmental movement go this was a pretty solid showing as former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke ahead of the screening to a crowd he brought to laughter a number of times -a crowd that included both prominent environmentalists and superstars like Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen.

Bundchen and Schwarzenegger are among the hosts for each of the episodes in the Years of Living Dangerously Series. During the screening the two stories on display were David Letterman’s journey to India and Saturday Night Lives Cecily Strong's expose on politicians working to hold back the solar industry in Nevada and Florida.  Letterman’s journey was funny, as expected, but it was quite revealing of the intertwined infrastructure and development challenges India faces. When it publically airs, this episode will be Letterman’s first television appearance since retiring from the Late Show with David Letterman. He now has a beard, which plays a prominent role in the episode. While Letterman used his typical wit to tell his story, SNL’s Cecily Strong took on a surprisingly serious tone during her episode documenting the tricks individuals are still willing to play despite their climate implications. Both episodes were powerful and both left the audience intrigued for more. They were good stories.

But the storytelling wasn’t just restricted to celebrities. Throughout Climate Week events focused on the narrative. When Bank of America announced it plans to go carbon-neutral; reduce location-based emissions by 50%, energy use by 40% and water use by 45% in its operations across the globe - all by the same 2020 deadline,” Andrew Pleper explained how building on previous commitments has to be part of the business story for taking climate action. “Together we can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon economy,” said Pleper during the opening ceremony of Climate Week. Former United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and current Apple Vice President of Environmental Policy and Social Issues picked up on Pleper’s line when Apple announced it too would be joining the RE 100 campaign and would be making significant investments in solar energy. “We have to be the ripple on the pond. We can’t just be 100% renewable energy, we have to bring others with us,” said Jackson. Even when real steps are being taken, it seems they are all coming with real narratives.

Over the last several years, progress in climate policy has clearly coincided with concerted efforts to make the issue more relatable. Climate change is a security issue, and over the last several years you have seen countless military personnel tell their climate stories. Climate change is a health issue and the stories of moms fighting for cleaner air or safer neighborhoods are permeating throughout the movement. Pope Francis’ climate messages, starting to gain traction a bit more than a year ago, created a religious narrative for those seeking to get involved, while those living on the front lines of climate impacts are increasingly making headlines. It’s all about the story.

Connect4Climate invited filmmakers between the ages of 14-35 years old from all over the world to share their climate stories on video.

Storytelling is the backbone of our Fim4Climate global video contest. When the Connect4Climate team of the World Bank decided to launch a film competition with numerous partners, rewarding those telling the best climate stories in a number of categories, the idea was to encourage more story telling, gather a diversity of perspectives and provide another venue for spreading these very real experiences.

As September drew to a close so to did the submissions for entries in the Film4Climate contest. With more than 860 entries from more than 150 countries it is becoming clear the demand for climate stories is being met with a steady supply. So while 2016 may not be known as the year the world reached a historic climate agreement like we had in 2015, perhaps it is the year of the climate story. If the last few weeks are any indication there are still plenty more to tell.

The closer you get to diplomacy the more you realize it is not that sexy. No offense to all my pals at United Nations and the yearly COP meetings, each of you are incredibly sexy in you own special ways, but then it comes to the process of getting the international community to agree on something let alone on begin acting on it, well the process can be quite drawn out, but it certainly isn’t a tease.

When the world’s countries agreed to the Paris Climate Agreement last December, it sparked what many thought would be a very lengthy process of each and every nation ratifying the agreement in their own special way. I remember someone telling me at a meeting shortly after Paris that it could take years, depending on the domestic politics in each nation, to get everyone onside. Hearing this, my optimism surrounding what was achieved in 2015 shifted to concerns that we wouldn’t deliver the dish we all ordered in before the end of 2016. Now, three quarters into 2016, I am back to feeling confident and for good reason.

All eyes were on the French capital last year during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21). Photo Credit: Max Thabiso Edkins

Before I explain why I am confident that the Paris Agreement will ratified before year’s end, let’s do a quick refresher. In December of 2015 representatives from 195 nations negotiated and agreed to the Paris Climate Agreement, which among other things was the first globally comprehensive climate agreement, it bound nations to contain warming to 1.5 degrees, and made financial flows consistent with a pathway towards lowering greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development. Pretty cool right? Still, the agreement that started in Paris didn’t end there. In the months after Paris, 191 nations have “signed” the agreement, which is a largely ceremonial distinction with most nations “signing” during a high profile event on Earth Day. Still, signing doesn’t equal ratification. Ratification only happens when the government’s of each country undertakes their own unique process back home to making the deal official. Ratification, in all it’s forms, has been taking place throughout the year, but not every country that has signed has ratified at that point, it’s an ongoing process that begs the question, “Do we need to wait for all 195 to do this and if not when does this happen?”

Well our friends at the United Nations had an answer for that question and, like all things United Nations, it’s a bit more complicated than it probably should be. For the Paris Agreement to go into effect, or into “force” as they say in UNland, two things need to happen. First, at least 55 countries have to ratify the deal and second, countries representing at least 55 percent of the world’s emissions have to ratify the deal. I’ll let you do the venn diagram in your head for that one, but after you draw the two circles you will get it and be sure to note that the overlap in the middle is fairly irrelevant.  

As of the time I write the comma at the end of this introductory clause, 61 nations have ratified the Paris Agreement. So the first threshold has been met, however, the second one remains just out of reach, as those 61 nations fall just short of reaching the 55% threshold. Still, the world is very close to hitting the second mark, and there's reason to be confident it is about to be met.  And it’s only October. For an unsexy process, this is actually pretty steamy.

The Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, United States. Photo Credit: Daniel Pinto Lopes

Now to the confidence, which stems from two big develops since the UN General Assembly meetings in mid-September. The first relates to India and the second relates to the European Union.  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used October 2nd - the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi--as the day for submitting India’s instrument of ratification to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. There remains some discussion about the exact procedures required for India’s submissions, but after uncertain comments from Modi relating to India's ability to ratify before the end of the year, it seems as though this latest ratification is the real deal. India’s ratification brings the emissions percentage up to 51.89, which gets us just a bit closer to the big moment.

And then we got even closer.

On Tuesday October 4th, the European Union agreed to its ratification in a historic vote. This brings us over the 55/55 threshold, and after 30 days, the Paris Agreement goes into force. By my calendar, the force will be with us (I thought of that all by myself), right around November 3rd -just in time for the COP 22 meetings in Marrakech, Morocco and a less than a year since the deal was struck in Paris. That may seem like a very long time ago for this relationship to be begin but, like I said, for diplomacy this moved really fast.

Today’s youth are energized to tackle climate change. They are supporting initiatives around the global to call for ambitious climate action. At the American School of Brasilia, during their annual basketball tournament, the #1o5C campaign was presented as a bold call to action.

Emil Raiser emphasizes: “Being able to represent the 1.5 campaign in our EAB Basketball Invitational was a huge honor. Not only was it a sublime success to advertise the logo on our tournaments shirts, but also, more importantly to spread the message conveyed by the campaign to an international audience. I hope for bright and flourishing future with the campaign.”

The #1o5C campaign, presented by the Sport4Climate initiative of the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate program, calls for action to prevent global warming below 1.5°C. Key partners include the Climate Vulnerable Forum, UNDP, UNEP, GIP, Care, CAN International, Purpose and many more, who lent their efforts to materialize the campaign, brining more than 135 athletes on board during the Rio 2016 Olympics. 

Find out more about the campaign: 1o5c.org

[video: https://youtu.be/LGXIaUNNtbU]

 

Thirteen game-changing initiatives from around the world were announced today as winners of the UNFCCC's Momentum for Change climate change award.

Winning activities include:

• A Google-led project that could catalyse the rooftop solar market for millions of people across the United States
• An ingenious net that harvests fog from the air to provide drinking water for people on the edge of Morocco’s Sahara Desert
• North America’s first revenue-neutral tax that puts a price on carbon pollution
• A project that has established the first women-specific standard to measure and monetize women’s empowerment benefits of climate action

Other winners include the EU’s largest crowdfunding platform for community solar projects and a project in Malaysia initiated by Ericsson that uses sensors to provide near real-time information to restore dwindling mangrove plantations.

Further winners are a company that provides solar systems to homes and businesses in rural Tanzania through an innovative financial package and a Swedish city that became the first in the world to issue green bonds, enabling it to borrow money for investments that benefit the environment.

The Momentum for Change initiative is spearheaded by the UN Climate Change secretariat to shine a light on some of the most innovative, scalable and replicable examples of what people are doing to address climate change. Today’s announcement is part of wider efforts to mobilize action and ambition as national governments work toward implementing the Paris Climate Change Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.

“The Momentum for Change Lighthouse Activities underline how climate action and sustainable development is building at all levels of society from country-wide initiatives to ones in communities, by companies and within cities world-wide,” UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said. “By showcasing these remarkable examples of creativity and transformational change, along with the extraordinary people behind them, we can inspire everyone to be an accelerator towards the kind of future we all want and need.”

Each of the 13 winning activities touches on one of Momentum for Change’s three focus areas: Women for Results, Financing for Climate Friendly Investment and ICT Solutions. All 13 will be showcased at a series of special events during the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco (7 November to 18 November 2016).

The 2016 Lighthouse Activities were selected by an international advisory panel as part of the secretariat’s Momentum for Change initiative, which operates in partnership with the World Economic Forum Global Project on Climate Change and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative.

Read on to learn about these 13 game-changing activities:

From plant-based beef burgers to pay-as-you-go solar energy, it’s evident that tomorrow’s world is already here. These are just two of the ten most innovative solution finalists which will be celebrated at the annual Sustainia Award Ceremony, taking place on 3 November in Copenhagen.

Now in its fifth year, the Sustainia Award Ceremony is an international event that showcases and celebrates outstanding performance within sustainability. It is hosted by leading sustainability firm Sustainia, which has tracked more than 4,500 solutions to date from all over the world.

The ten finalists have been selected from the 2016 Sustainia100, published earlier this year, which showcases 100 solutions for a cleaner, greener and fairer future. The final nominees represent ten sectors, ranging from food to fashion, and are also mapped against the impact they make on the Sustainable Development Goals. The final solutions represent the new global context of sustainable innovation, as they are developed and deployed in five continents including countries like Peru, Korea and Afghanistan.

Morten Nielsen, Managing Director of Sustainia, said:

“As the world’s leaders have dispersed from the United Nations General Assembly, and we gear up for COP22, these finalists are a vital reminder that sustainable action is already underway. We, rightly, demand more from our politicians, but we must also focus our energy on the difference we can all make. These ten solutions show that innovation isn’t limited by geography, age, power or passion – these are the things that will help us realize our sustainable future.

All ten finalists are eligible for two award categories. The Sustainia Award is selected by the Sustainia Award Committee, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger; and the Community Award is selected by public vote. Anyone can vote for their favourite Community Award finalist, by visiting the Sustainia website.

This year’s Sustainia Award Ceremony comes at a time of mounting interest amongst global leaders for solutions to the world’s biggest challenges, across all sectors. This is something Sustainia seeks to consolidate through a new partnership with the UN Global Compact. Building on the five-year success of the Sustainia100, the two organizations have made a commitment to build a dynamic digital platform for global sustainable solutions, called the Global Solutions Platform. The new platform will launch in early 2017 and will provide a single access point to the most innovative solutions, through the click of a button.

For more information about the ten finalists for the Sustainia Award Ceremony, and for the chance to vote for the Community Award winner, visit http://www.sustainia.me/sustainia-action-forum/vote/

For more information and interview requests:

Katie McCrory / km@mm.dk / +4591405026

The goal of the Put A Price On It campaign is to put a price on carbon pollution by mobilizing the support of generations most affected by climate change: young people. The campaign will elevate the importance of carbon pricing through innovative communications tactics (film, social media, and celebrity endorsements), while empowering students across the country to directly lobby their members of Congress and build a groundswell of support from young voters.

The campaign is being launched by the Emmy-award winning TV series, the Years of Living Dangerously, and is led by the co-founding directors of Our Climate (formally Oregon Climate), the nation’s first Millennial-led carbon price and rebate organization.

Putting a price on carbon, and all other greenhouse gases, is an indispensable step in the effort to achieve climate stability. Climate change is not caused by a shortage of rooftop solar panels or an excess of gas pipelines; even ocean acidification and extreme weather events are symptoms of a larger problem: the true costs of fossil fuels are hidden. We are not paying for drought relief, wildfire protection, or superstorm recovery when we fill our gas tanks or invest our 401ks in fossil fuel companies. The hidden costs of our energy choices -- to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives lost every year -- will be paid by countless people who don’t get to choose, from inhabitants of low-lying islands to unborn generations.

A price on carbon levels the playing field for renewable energy, reduces pollution, and generates jobs and revenue. This policy offers both the most affordable and, if well designed, the most progressive path to saving the planet. Thought leaders including Robert Reich, Bill McKibben, Christine Lagarde and even President Obama agree it is a necessary step. Institutions such as the World Bank and MIT have thrown their weight behind the policy, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, among hundreds more advocacy groups, support this economy-wide approach. There is broad consensus that carbon pricing is the solution we need. What we lack is the grassroots movement to make this politically feasible.

Young people will be hardest hit by climate, and many have the perspective, life experience, and moral gravitas to serve as the most effective spokespeople for action. Decision-makers respond to young people in a way they don’t to other groups; so they are the perfect demographic to call for solutions that are fair, grounded in science, and proven to work. The Put A Price On It campaign will focus on recruiting students to lead campaigns on their campuses, hold outreach events, and seek endorsements, as well as train them to be effective policy advocates. By working together to build the next generation of informed and powerful climate leaders, and advocating for a specific policy solution, we will #PutAPriceOnIt!

To join us, please visit TheClimateSolution.com.