From Biden to Boris, we’ve covered a whole host of ambitious (and otherwise) climate action plans on the #MaddyEco. Yesterday, Climate Action Tracker - taking into account all of these plans, in particular the fact that the world’s two biggest emitters (China and the USA) are now on board with global goals - had some good news.
Apparently, the UN Paris Climate Agreement targets are now ‘within reach’; we’re looking at a 2.1 degree celsius rise by 2100 - which is significantly closer to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degree target than the +3 degree trajectory we’ve been on previously.
Overall, 127 countries, responsible for circa 63% of emissions have adopted or are considering adopting net-zero targets. There’s a way to go yet - and 2030 targets will need to be seriously strong - but things are looking up.
On the ground, however, the impact of a climate that’s already changing continues. In Bolivia, for example, forest fires and an extended period of drought have seen the departments of Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca declare a state of disaster.
The big ideas
Have a look at the ideas and innovations from across the spectrum of politics, social justice and big business that caught my eye this week:
- The South African government has just funded 13 youth-led green projects covering climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity and ecosystems, and waste management.
- Homethings provides tiny effervescent tabs which, when put into glass spray bottles and topped up with tap water, create powerful, non-toxic and plastic-free cleaning solutions.
- Grassroots solutions to deforestation - including access to health care and agricultural training - have seen logging all but end in a 250,000-acre rainforest in Borneo.
- Beersheva - the largest city in the Negev desert, Israel - wants to become the world’s centre for desert tech, and will be involved in projects such as agricultural innovation in deserts and preventing further desertification.
- Oslo’s TotalCtrl is a cloud-based food waste prevention system - which can be used by everyone from restaurants to food banks.
- Ghana’s Ezekiel Chibeze has been declared winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work with 350 Ghana Reducing our Carbon, protesting the Ekumfi proposed coal plant and working at a grassroots level to promote renewables in Ghana.
- Juan Fernández Archipelago National Park in Chile is home to numerous species found nowhere else on the planet, and a testament to ‘how concerted efforts can bring back to life places that are most degraded by human development.’ Efforts are currently underway to protect the endangered pink-footed shearwater.
- Shanghai recently received a World Smart City Award for its roll-out of 5G and AI, which is helping the city function more efficiently and thus reducing emissions substantially.
- Is biology the future of fast fashion? AlgiKnit, developing materials from the most renewable organisms on Earth, thinks so.
- Farmers in Sicily are growing mangos and avocados as changing weather patterns make traditional olive oil and citrus production increasingly untenable.
- There are 2.1 million ‘idle’ oil wells across the United States, which risk contaminating soil and causing danger to humans and animals alike. Meet the ex-industry insiders doing something about it.
Further reading
If you’re still reading, here’s even more reading:
