Outrage Optimism

When it comes to climate action, the UK is back! Tune in to this special episode to hear The Rt Hon David Lammy, the UK’s new Foreign Secretary on: - His decision to place climate change at the heart of his first major speech in his new position - Why the climate emergency is a national security issue - The UK's ambitions to lead on reforming the global financial system so as to redress the balance between countries of the Global North and those of the Global South Hear the full conversation at https://bit.ly/4en6va0 or wherever you get your podcasts.

Living through a climate crisis is complicated, confusing and overwhelming, right? If you've thought about questions like... ✈️ Is it still ok to fly? 💻 Should my career be climate focused? 👶🏽 Should I have kids or how do we parent kids now? 🍽 What should I eat? ❓And what does a ‘good life’ mean in a climate crisis anyway?! Tune in to our new series How To Live a Good Life in a Climate Crisis, starting Thursday 3 October, wherever you get your podcasts. There are no hard and fast answers of course, but perhaps together we can figure out what it means to live a good life now. #howtoliveagoodlife

What will it take for next year's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to be bold and ambitious enough to close the gap to 1.5C and get us on track for our 2030 goals? In this week's exciting episode, recorded live at #ClimateWeekNYC, hear from #Mission2025 partners - real economy leaders who are now urging governments to set investment-positive policies that will give private capital the confidence to invest at scale in the energy transition. Our hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson were joined by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, Ana Toni, Nigar Arpadarai Jennifer Morgan, Günther Thallinger, Helen Clarkson, Peter Bakker, Tim Lenton, Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Renata Koch Alvarenga, and Veena Balakrishnan for a rapid-fire live podcast on the actions we need to see over the next year. Enjoy! Listen here: https://bit.ly/3XEBQhh or wherever you get your podcasts 🎧

A special episode of O O coming your way tomorrow! Our hosts are live at #ClimateWeekNYC for the #Mission2025 event, joined onstage by a stellar lineup of influential voices from government, the private sector, science, civil society and academia. This flagship event highlighted how transformative climate strategies can be supercharged, pushing for ‘positive tipping points’ across three key themes: energy, nature & food, and finance. Mission 2025 is a coalition of real economy leaders rallying governments to strengthen their national climate commitments (Nationally Determined Contributions) in alignment with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Coming very soon, wherever you get your podcasts. Simon Stiell, Jennifer Morgan, Günther Thallinger, Nigar Arpadarai, Ana Toni, Helen Clarkson, Peter Bakker, Tim Lenton, Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Renata Koch Alvarenga Veena Balakrishnan

Every year the list of The Earthshot Prize Prize finalists fills me with renewed optimism and a particular kind of hope - that which comes from seeing just how resourceful, innovative and utterly brilliant we humans can be in the face of great challenge. This year was no exception. Our fifteen finalists are leading the way in solving some of the most urgent issues of our time - restoring nature, reviving our oceans, cleaning the air, building a waste-free world and fixing the climate. Their groundbreaking work ripples out in waves of inspiration and action across the globe. Congratulations to each of these outstanding entries - and a mention to the many other brilliant initiatives that did not make the final. It is such a joy to learn about the endeavours of these incredible individuals (who number in their thousands) working towards a safe, sustainable future. Wonderful as always to work with fellow members of the Earthshot team, including Jacinda Ardern, Wanjira Mathai and José Andrés, pictured here. Learn more about this year's finalists: https://lnkd.in/eRAyaxv5

At Climate Week New York, #Mission2025 - the global coalition of real economy leaders - is stepping up to support governments to harness investment positive climate policies within ambitious national climate plans to boost national competitiveness and security. Data from the Energy Transitions Commission reveals how three investment positive policies are already unlocking investment in many countries, and could scale investment to $1trillion of the $3.5tn per annum required to transition the energy sector in line with 1.5C. The move comes less than six months before governments are due to submit their national climate plans (NDCs), and offer a decade-defining opportunity to deliver the political certainty hundreds of investors are seeking in order to finance the transition to a more resilient, low carbon economy. The Mission 2025 coalition now represents a partnership of over 70 organizations across the climate action ecosystem, as well as multinational businesses, including Allianz Fortescue IKEA Polestar SAP Unilever. #ClimateWeekNYC Read the full press release here: https://bit.ly/M25_Release Mission 2025 website is here: https://lnkd.in/eScuwKaH

Planet Earth has had its first Planetary Health Check. The new tool is a first of-its-kind scientific report on the health of the Earth’s vital systems, launched at #ClimateWeekNYC yesterday. 🌍 Key findings: - Six out of nine Planetary Boundaries have already been breached. - A seventh boundary is at risk of imminent transgression. - Seven of the nine boundaries show trends moving deeper into the high-risk red zone. Led by Professor Johan Rockström and the PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and supported by Planetary Guardians, the Global Commons Alliance and other partners, the Planetary Health Check exists to translate science into action and guide global development, with findings providing support for nations, companies, multilaterals, and citizens to change course to get back to a safe operating space for all. 💚 Read more: https://lnkd.in/ebseFYPY

Your weekly news stories of outrage and optimism including this week the adoption of the #PactfortheFuture by the UN General Assembly. 👁️ Moving together with our eyes on the future is absolutely what is needed right now so we celebrate this agreement. This was by no means a ‘done deal’ and was adopted by consensus, not unanimity, with 15 abstentions and 7 votes against. Nevertheless, a landmark move forward for multilateralism. We now need to see pledges become actions. Plus: 🔥 OUTRAGE 1: Sweden has backtracked on climate action, cutting a flight tax that was aimed at cutting pollution from aviation, despite admitting it would increase flying and therefore emissions. 🌱 OPTIMISM 1: A “Pact for the Future” was adopted by UNGA, described as a “step-change towards more effective, inclusive, networked multilateralism.” by Antonio Gutteres. 🔥 OUTRAGE 2: More than 40% of major companies, cities and regions have still not set any targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and some of those with plans are “struggling to translate long-term goals into concrete action”. 🌱 OPTIMISM 2: A new campaign to mobilize parents around the world to take climate action and help #protectwhatwelove has been launched. Over 150 notable parents including Christiana Figueres have signed an open letter to world leaders. Head to @ourkidsclimate to sign the letter. 🔥 OUTRAGE 3: Ecuador is experiencing its worst droughts on record, with no real rainfall in over two months. Emergency measures such as planned power cuts have been implemented, with more to follow if water levels are not restored. 🌱 OPTIMISM 3: Mission 300, a $90 billion World Bank plan to electrify Africa is underway, aiming to bring electricity to 300 million people. The program will focus on clean-energy provision through technologies such as mini-grids. Note: each news item included is a complex story in its own right, reduced here to a single line as a potential signpost for further reading. You can find the links to the news sources in the comments. 🎧 Feed your ears with more outrage and optimism - this week we’ll be bringing you special updates from #ClimateWeekNYC. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.

🤔 What do you do when you get a call from Jeff Bezos, saying he wants to prove the Paris Agreement wrong…? In this week’s episode, hear the story of how that phone call led to The Climate Pledge, a coalition of over 500 top companies who are collaborating across sectors to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2040 - a whole decade earlier than the Paris Agreement. Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac chat to Kara H. Hurst, CSO of Amazon and lead on #TheClimatePledge, about how this ambitious goal can be reached and the impressive progress made in the last five years. Listen via the link below, or wherever you get your podcasts.  https://bit.ly/3XOv6ib

How refreshing to see the climate and nature crises placed front and centre of international politics by David Lammy, UK Foreign Secretary who in his speech at Kew Gardens today said these crises are “not some discrete policy area, divorced from geopolitics, conflict and insecurity. The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic, pervasive and accelerating towards us.” We’re excited to hear more on this and pleased to let you know we’ll be having an exclusive conversation with David Lammy in the coming days. So let us know what you think we should ask him - and make sure you tune in to O O over the next couple of weeks for #climateweeknyc and beyond - we’ve got lots of exciting episodes coming up 💚 You can watch the speech in full here: https://lnkd.in/eGwC48Xu