At the end of last week, countries from all over the globe convened online in an unprecedented Virtual Climate Summit hosted by the Marshall Islands, leaders of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF). The aim of the Summit—which aligned with the general mission of the CVF—was to raise awareness of the extent to which a couple degrees of global warming can devastate low-altitude and otherwise at-risk nations.

This “couple of degrees”—2 degrees Celsius—is not an arbitrary number, but rather the maximum net global warming (vis-à-vis preindustrial levels) permissible under the Paris Agreement of 2015. Participants in the Climate Vulnerable Forum stressed that even this 2-degree benchmark is not ambitious enough, and that any warming beyond 1.5 degrees will have deadly sea level and coral bleaching ramifications for low-lying and ocean-dependent communities.

The Virtual Climate Summit communicated these ideas through emotional documentaries, poems and call-to-action videos, live panel discussions and head of state video messages. And in addition to highlighting disproportionately affected nations, the Summit called attention to disproportionately affected strata of society, with a special focus on women and their tendency to bear the brunt of global warming effects.

The Summit was not a pessimistic event but rather a realistic one, laying out the direness of the current situation and proactively offering solutions moving forward. The Marshall Islands set the tone of the Summit by stepping up and announcing concrete plans to raise climate ambition, declaring a commitment to 100% renewable energy and zero net emissions by 2050. Fiji joined the Marshall Islands by announcing an enhanced country climate action plan by next year and the Summit welcomed similar pledges from other endangered nations looking to set a sterling example for the rest of the world.

The official outcome of the Summit, particularly the “Jumemmej Declaration” will feed into the agreed mechanism to promote enhanced action by all nations party to the Paris Agreement dubbed the “Talanoa Dialogue” and sends a powerful call to arms to all leaders and non-state actors to enhance ambition by 2020. During the Summit Vanuatu also announced they may be seeking legal action against fossil fuel companies, taking the climate battle to the courts.

This event was the perfect way to set the stage for the 24^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), which commences this week in Katowice, Poland and will continue through mid-December. COP24 is bringing together delegations to reassess the demands of global warming and to ramp up support for climate action in light of the IPCC Global Warming of 1.5 °C report, which emphasizes that current country climate action commitments are not enough. Building on the spirit of the Talanoa Dialogues, which personalized climate action through emotional story-telling and strive to raise ambition, COP24 aims to unpack a “Just Transition” for industries and economies by changing together.

The Virtual Climate Summit was an impactful reminder that even 2 degrees can be deadly, and yet the latest data suggest humanity is well on its way to 3 degrees of warming by the end of this century. COP24 will be an opportunity to take to heart the concerns laid out by the Vulnerable Climate Forum last week and redouble international commitments to the goals of the Paris Agreement.

With global carbon emissions at an all-time high in 2017 according to the WMO, leaders on climate agree that it’s now or never if we as a global community need to step up to have a shot at preventing global catastrophe. The IPCC tells us we have 12 years to make the global transition, decarbonize economies by 45% by 2030 from 2010 level, while also ensuring those most affected develop resilience to increasing climate impacts. Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. Entrepreneurs and investors in the private sector have shown an eagerness to contribute to the sustainable development sphere, and pricing carbon is seeing wider and wider adoption rates, while subsidies for fossil fuels are being removed.

The message of COP24 is not that we’re doing nothing right, but rather—in line with the arguments of the Virtual Climate Summit—that we need to seize on what we are doing right and do much more of it in the years to come. This will require novel strategies, a renewed sense of urgency, and wide-ranging teamwork, all of which are attainable if we keep our eyes on a brighter future.

Connect4Climate will be at COP24 from 3-14 December. Follow the daily Facebook live broadcasts from the Joint MDB Pavilion and look out for our call-to-action videos. Join the discussion, we are stepping up climate action.

Banner and thumbnail photo credits to the Climate Vulnerable Forum

Every year, we’re lucky to be joined by a long list of thought leaders, policymakers, business innovators, TV, film and music stars, scientists, and on-the-ground climate activists for our annual global broadcast of 24 Hours of Reality.

This year’s show will be no different. We’re still confirming many of the guests who will join former US Vice President Al Gore during the 24 straight hours we’re broadcasting live from Los Angeles, from 6 PM PST on December 3 through 6 PM PST on December 4. But we’re excited to announce that some of our absolute favorites are set to join us for 24 Hours of Reality: Protect Our Planet, Protect Ourselves – and they’re jumping in the ring to help us make sure you join in too!

Read on to see who’s going the extra mile – and be sure to share their exciting messages of support on Facebook by simply clicking the share button below each video.

Bill Nye

Bill Nye “the Science Guy” and Climate Reality go way back. Like, way, way back.

More than seven long years ago, Nye was kind enough to narrate an informative short film for us on the basics of climate change, and he’s joined Climate Reality Founder and Chairman Al Gore for previous iterations of our signature broadcast. The popular mechanical engineer-turned-science communicator and television star will return once again for this year’s 24 Hours of Reality: Protect Our Planet, Protect Ourselves.

Nye has been particularly outspoken on the climate crisis – and its solutions. He’s even dedicated entire episodes of his hit science-centered Netflix show, Bill Nye Saves the World, to the topic, earning an Emmy nomination along the way for a season-one episode titled “Earth Is a Hot Mess.”

Jaden Smith

Getting young people engaged in the fight against climate change is vital. After all, they’re the ones who will be on the front lines as this crisis evolves. And rapper and actor Jaden Smith knows it.

The 20-year-old socially conscious superstar is also an outspoken climate activist. He has called Vice President Gore his “inspiration,” and makes smart use of his millions (and millions and millions) of social media connections to inform young people about our warming world – as well as the solutions with which we can fight back.

Jonathan Scott

Jonathan Scott long has been one of Climate Reality’s most vocal supporters. Despite being one of the busiest guys we know – what with his multiple popular HGTV shows, books, and branded products – he always makes time to talk about climate solutions. And given his famed background in contracting, as well as his experience fighting anti-solar legislation in his now-home state of Nevada, who better to hear from.

Scott has joined us for 24 Hours of Reality in the past, and even hosted several hours of previous broadcasts. Why? We’ll let him explain:

“I love the fact that we’re showcasing that this is not just a US problem, this is not just a Canadian problem or a Chinese problem or an Indian problem – this is a global problem. And it’s also something that will have a global solution. You know, there’s going to always be infighting between governments, and there’s going to be disputes over approaches to these solutions. But at the end of the day, I would like to think that as human beings we all have one goal, and it would be that we have a safe future for the generations to come. I would like to think that’s a goal we all have in common.”

>> Don’t Miss Climate’s Big Day <<

  It is still possible to keep global warming below 2°C, but the technical feasibility of bridging the 1.5°C gap is dwindling.

  Global CO2 emissions increased in 2017, after three years of stabilization.

  If the emissions gap is not closed by 2030, it is extremely unlikely that the 2°C temperature goal will remain in reach.

Global emissions are on the rise as national commitments to combat climate change come up short. But surging momentum from the private sector and untapped potential from innovation and green financing offer means of bridging the "emissions gap" between current projections of 2030 emission levels and levels consistent with a 2°C / 1.5°C warming target. Those findings, along with a sweeping review of climate action and the latest measurements of global emissions, were presented by authors of UN Environment's 2018 Emissions Gap Report during a recent launch event.

The findings presented offer the latest accounting of national mitigation efforts and the ambitions countries have presented in their Nationally Determined Contributions, which form the foundation of the Paris Agreement.

This evidence, outlined just days before the start of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), reveals that global emissions have reached historic levels of 53.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e), with no peak in sight. Authors assessed that only 57 countries (representing 60 percent of global emissions) are on track for 2030.

That analysis and a review of progress against national commitments under the Paris Agreement makes clear that the current pace of national action is insufficient to meet the Paris targets. Increased emissions and lagging action mean the gap number in this year’s report is larger than ever. The authors conclude nations must raise their ambition by 3x to meet the 2°C target and 5x to meet the 1.5°C target.

“If the IPCC report represented a global fire alarm, this report is the arson investigation,” said UN Environment Deputy Executive Director Joyce Msuya. “The science is clear. For all the ambitious climate action we’ve seen, governments need to move faster and with greater urgency. We’re feeding this fire while the means to extinguish it are within reach.”

A continuation of current trends will likely result in global warming of around 3°C by the end of the century, with continued temperature rises after that, according to the report.

While the authors highlight that there is still a possibility for bridging the emissions gap and keeping global warming below 2°C, the assessment issues a clear warning: The kind of drastic, large-scale action we urgently need has yet to been seen, and time is running out.

To fill this void, the 2018 Emissions Gap Report offers new insight into what meaningful climate action will look like. Through new analysis of global emissions in the context of fiscal policymaking and the current pace of innovation, as well as an exhaustive review of climate action from the private sector and subnational level, authors offered a roadmap for implementing the type of transformative action required to harness the potential in each of these sectors.

Ranging from city, state and regional governments to companies, investors, higher education institutions and civil society organizations, non-state actors are increasingly committing to bold climate action. These institutions will be invaluable contributors in the push to reach global emissions goals. Although estimates on the emission reduction potential vary widely, some mention 19 GtCO2e by 2030. This is enough to close the 2°C gap.

If complemented by carefully designed national fiscal policy, the work of these actors could pack an even greater punch.

“When governments embrace fiscal policy measures to subsidize low-emission alternatives and tax fossil fuels, they can stimulate the right investments in the energy sector and significantly reduce carbon emissions,” said Jian Liu, UN Environment’s Chief Scientist. “Thankfully, the potential of using fiscal policy as an incentive is increasingly recognized, with 51 carbon pricing initiatives now in place or scheduled, covering roughly 15 percent of global emissions. If all fossil fuel subsidies were phased out, global carbon emissions could be reduced by up to 10 percent by 2030. Setting the right carbon price is also essential. At the US $70 per ton of CO2, emission reductions of up to 40 percent are possible in some countries.”

These established strategies become even more effective when policymakers embrace innovative solutions. Authors outlined five key principles that should be considered to accelerate low-carbon innovation: risk acceptance, commercial scalability, holistic economic alignment, mission-oriented approaches, and a long-term horizon to increase financial uptake.

The ninth Emissions Gap Report was prepared by an international team of leading scientists, assessing all available information, including that published in the context of the IPCC Special Report as well as in other recent scientific studies.

SmarTalk Project is a branded campaign launched in 2018 by the international cultural company Gruppo Jobel, headquartered in Rome. It promotes a range of creative activities aimed at raising awareness, engagement, and commitment across civil society in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid out in the United Nations' Agenda 2030.

We recognize that the current development model is no longer sustainable for the planet and humanity. Through this Agenda, we are committed to building a new worldwide sustainable system, one which will allow us to: end poverty and hunger; ensure dignity end equality; protect our planet’s natural resources; fight climate change; provide prosperous, fulfilling lives in harmony with nature; and cultivate peaceful, fair, and inclusive societies for the good of present and future generations.

To achieve this lofty goal, we must implement the Agenda through a comprehensive global partnership encompassing every aspect of civil society (as the UN suggests in Goal 17). One of the most challenging points will be involving local communities in the SDGs program.

The SmarTalk Project aspires to merge high-quality expert knowledge with the communication skills of artists and performers to produce a distinct cultural force capable of impacting as many everyday people as possible. Its prime objective is the fulfillment of the Agenda 2030 strategy by means of creative and artistic languages.

The project strives to produce several independent events in collaboration with local and international partners—events tailor-made for different cities all around the world—to foster a sustainable cultural network to promote knowledge surrounding the SDGs within a few years.

In 2019, we will be delighted to launch the first three platforms: SmarTalk Rome (Italy, Europe), SmarTalk Bangkok (Thailand, Asia) and SmarTalkMontreal (Canada, North America).

Women leaders take center stage in a sweeping virtual conference

For many countries around the world, the benchmarks put in place in the Paris Agreement—intended to keep net global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and certainly below 2 degrees—have fallen by the wayside in the years since, kicked under the rug amid the continual thrum of politics and bureaucracy. For the Marshall Islands and other low-lying nations, however, sidelining the Paris commitments is simply not an option: achieving them could be the difference between life and death.

Watch LIVE: www.virtualclimatesummit.org

The people and government of the Marshall Islands have become known for their unflinching 1.5 to Stay Alive climate campaign, which stresses that if temperature change surpasses 1.5 degrees, let alone 2, rising sea levels would submerge much of their ancestral and current homeland and render their beautiful nation uninhabitable. Given the Marshalls’ cultural emphasis on home, legacy, and the bounties of nature, this loss would be especially dire.

The Marshall Islands sit at the helm of a group of similarly threatened countries known collectively as the Climate Vulnerable Forum, or CVF, which aims to unite disparate voices from smaller countries and amplify their concerns for the rest of the world to hear. The group is proactive its own right too, intent on leading by example on the world stage through pioneering sustainability campaigns. Today and tomorrow, the CVF is conducting an ambitious web-based conference called the Virtual Climate Summit in a push to raise awareness of the severity of warming trends and brainstorm next steps in the ongoing battle against climate change.

Participants in the discussion will include other imperiled island nations such as Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea as well as mainland countries confronting deadly changes in weather patterns, e.g., Nepal, Vietnam, Sudan, Senegal, and Yemen. Under the leadership of president Hilda Heine, the Marshall Islands have taken special care to include female voices in this dialogue, which will be catalyzed by a volunteer panel of all-female Summit Champions.

This collective of climate change Champions comprises European Climate Foundation CEO Laurence Tubiana, Sustainable Energy for All CEO Rachel Kyte, World Bank Sustainable Development VP Laura Tuck, Global Environment Facility CEO Naoko Ishii, former Irish president Mary Robinson, current Philippine senator Loren Legarda, Oxfam International director Winnie Byanyima, and Greenpeace director Jennifer Morgan. Hailing from all corners of the world, the members of the team will aim to ensure women’s perspective on climate change is at the heart of the conference deliberations—where it belongs.

The threats of global warming weigh heaviest on the minds of women, who make up 70% of the world’s poor—a group disproportionately threatened by unchecked climate change. Yet women in many countries also have a unique power to make a positive impact, being as they are invaluable contributors to the cultivation and preparation of food and frequent providers of shelter, warmth, water, and clothes within their families.

The Summit hopes to rekindle a sense of urgency around global warming and to empower the world’s women to defy recent torpor on the world stage and harness their unsuppressed voices to make a real difference.

Removing microplastics from wastewater

Connect4Climate Message

[video:https://vimeo.com/299256998]

Building climate resilient cities

Underground pipes of the future

Photo Credits: Pixabay

Perspectives in industrial water management

Dr. Thomas Track, Head of Water Technologies at DECHEMA, spoke on ‘Perspectives in industrial water management.’ Water is vital for the industry sector, both at the national and at the international level. The water technology needs of the industry sector do not only differ fundamentally from those of the municipal sector, but they also vary strongly between industries and locations so that standardized solutions are not feasible. There are many challenges to industrial process water including physical risks, regulatory risks, and strategic risks. As such, there is a need for integrated industrial water management.

Connecting global water and sanitation providers

Dr. Bastian Piltz, Head of Business Development Germany, Isle Utilities, spoke on ‘International Collaboration for the Future of Water - a consultancy approach.’ Collaboration in water- and sanitation industries between developing and developed nations can play a central role in ensuring equitable access to these vital services. However, copy-and-paste transfer of existing solutions is often not applicable since societal and economic conditions with regards to infrastructure vary significantly across the world. Traditional development aid — while carried out with the best of intentions — often fails to deliver on sustainable results. A crucial factor — the involvement and empowerment of local stakeholders — tends to be neglected. This presentation will highlight some of the activities carried out by a commercial consultancy firm, active in the global water and wastewater sector, that are designed to deliver on this matter.

Comparisons of water prices across Europe

Friederike Lauruschkus, Managing Partner civity Management Consultants GmbH & CO. KG spoke on the ‘Comparison of European Water Prices.’ Water supply systems are very different across the EU member states, observing differences in the water industry’s structure, infrastructures, and investments, prices, grants, taxes, and fees as well as standards of service and quality. Nonetheless, there are standards and requirements set on a European level concerning the access to high quality, safe and sufficient drinking water. So the water sector is the only economic sector in Europe for which EU directives lay down rules on the quality of services and pricing with the objective of the recovery of costs. Against this background, comparisons of water prices must take more into account than mere cubic meter prices. The study delivers a systematic approach by not only describing but also quantifying and integrating grants and quality of services into the price comparison. The study compares the water supply systems in Germany, England/Wales, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland covering slightly over half of the population of the EU-28. In the course of the study, the comparison leads to differentiated conclusions regarding the extent to which prices are cost-covering and what level of service and quality is achieved with them.

 

Photo Credits: Pixabay

Financing a water-secure future

Martina Macpherson, Partner, SI Partners Ltd. & President, NFSM & Visiting Fellow, Henley Business School, provided a ‘101’ on sustainable finance. This topic is critical given that water is the most massive climate-aligned theme of sustainable finance and that sustainable investing and green finance has moved from niche to mainstream: Sustainable Investing assets under management has already reached US$ 22.9 trillion and labeled green bonds issuances totaled US$ 101 billion in Dec 2017.

Digitalization to encourage resource savings

Dr. Anabel Ternès, CEO and founder of GetYourWings gGmbH, which is committed to sustainable digital competence, member of the board of NFTE Germany, global ambassador of SameSky, Executive Director of International Institute for Sustainability Management (IISM) and professor in E-Business and International Communications Management at the SRH International Management University Berlin, spoke on ‘How digital competence can support resource-saving behavior’. The careful use of our resources is a topic that concerns everyone. Last but not least, climate change shows how crucial it is to treat this topic from the very beginning. Water is a primary resource as well as the habitat of many animal and plant species. The digital transformation often seems contrary to environmental protection. But with sustainable digital competence, digital tools can help protect our resources. GetYourWings conveys digital competence in education, training and consulting with own, unique methods.

 

Photo Credits: Pixabay

Developing sustainable, ethical brands

Andrea Henao, the Managing Partner at 360 Agency Berlin, spoke on developing sustainable, ethical brands in a world facing water scarcity. Andrea’s presentation focused on (1) Assessment of our water situation including groundwater scarcity, the micro-plastic in ocean, rivers, etc.; (2) Companies which abused water in the past; (3) Our duty to boycott particular brands; (4) The importance of aligning image with production to avoid greenwashing; and (5) It is our duty now with all the information we have in hand to organize actions as changes start now.

The rise of blue-green cities

Robert C. Brears, the founder of Our Future Water, spoke on ‘Blue and Green Cities: The role of blue-green infrastructure in managing urban water resources.’ Faced with climate change and environmental degradation many cities are turning to Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) solutions to enhance climate resilience as well as restore the health of ecosystems. A key aspect of BGI is its multifunctionality, specifically, its ability to perform several functions and provide several benefits within the same spatial area. To enhance resilience to climate change and restore natural habitats, many leading cities around the world are implementing innovative fiscal and non-fiscal policies to encourage the uptake of BGI on the public and private property.

 

Banner and thumbnail photo credits to Pixabay