Topic: Just Transition

“In 2009, I was in my first semester in college when typhoon Ketsana struck the Philippines and nearly took my life. Many would look at supertyphoon Haiyan in 2013 as the turning point for climate action in my country,” climate campaigner from the Philippines, John Leo Algo’s letter to leaders.

“To the leaders of the developing countries, including my own, I would like to say: be bold! Show to the world your vision of how you want to transform your communities in order to survive AND thrive post-pandemic and amid continuous and exacerbated climate threats” — Vladislav Kaim, UN Secretary General’s Youth Advisor on Climate Change.

“Africa for years has been experiencing the impacts of climate change and these are becoming more and more catastrophic. It has been our past, it is our present and might become our future if we don’t Act Now.” Ugandan Climate Activist, Evelyn Acham’s submission to the Our World in Your Hands project.

Dr Elizabeth Hausler, Founder and CEO of Build Change, an organization that prevents housing loss caused by disasters, explains why everyone, from state to non-state actors, must drive the demand for resilient housing.

“Fighting climate change helps us create a better world. And net zero is the lever to get us there,” Farhana Yamin speaking at a town hall meeting convened by the UN High Level Champions on June 28.

To win the Race to Zero, all companies must put sustainability at the heart of their business model and undergo their own green transformation, argues Jakob Askou Bøss, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Stakeholder Relations at Ørsted.

Here’s how we make the 2020s an era of recovery and regeneration and making sure that within the decade, nature is absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, supporting jobs and livelihoods, and allowing us to thrive in spite of climate shocks.

Data has shown that 40.5% of African youth respondents outlined digital inclusion as a particularly difficult challenge while 27.7% of respondents had challenges accessing reliable and affordable energy.

On World Ocean Day 2021, the global wind industry has been joined by a growing coalition of voices calling for governments to urgently raise their offshore wind ambitions.

Offshore wind will be an increasingly vital technology to deliver large-scale, reliable and affordable renewable energy, which can accelerate the global energy transition, argues Alastair Dutton, Chair of the Global Offshore Wind Task Force at the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

The challenges posed by manmade heat cannot be tackled by technology and design alone, argue Antonella Mazzone & Radhika Khosla from the Future of Cooling Programme, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.

“We need to connect the dots and find ways to get communities activated and engaged,” Dr Husna Ahmad, CEO of international development charity, Global One in conversation with Nigel Topping.

Bamboo is more than a metaphor for human resilience. For world leading bamboo expert Dr Hans Friederich, it represents a bounty of opportunity both for climate resilience and mitigation strategies.

Ensuring that these countries are empowered, mobilized and adequately supported is a matter of climate and economic justice.

The latest episode of Outrage + Optimism discusses the complexity of financing the fundamental economic transition to a future net-zero world.

“This is our only home. This is our ability to survive as a species. And every other issue, whether it’s animal rights, human rights or children’s rights will be negatively impacted – and is already sometimes being negatively impacted – by an unhealthy environment. It feels like the rug underneath everything else” – Lily Cole in conversation with Nigel Topping.

“The world we live in today has been shaped by the breakthroughs of our past – from the Model T assembly line to the spread of mobile phones across previously unconnected rural areas. Such breakthroughs continue to propel us towards a safer future, as long as governments make sure the whole of society comes along for the ride.” – UN High Level Champion, Nigel Topping.

As we celebrate Earth Day and inch closer to COP26, 17 of the world’s greatest environmentalists – scientists, guardians of the planet, leaders, pioneers, activists, adventurers and ambassadors – reflect on their hopes for its outcome.

The private sector is going to be key to the pace and scale of innovation and deployment of capital necessary to tackle the challenges we face, and to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“Unless we begin to seriously address the effects of land degradation in [the Sahel], we will only be scratching the surface of the deep challenges that the whole world faces from the environmental impacts of climate change and its related socio-economic consequences, including drought, famine, conflict over scarce resources and migration.”

“I have no doubt we will find the answers but only if we are bold enough to talk about things which are more inconvenient and not brush them under the carpet. We will only fight this fight if we keep our voices as clamorous as possible and talk truth to power. Only then.”