Spotted: The UNICEF Venture Fund collaborates with innovators to develop solutions for the challenges facing the world’s children. Last year, the Fund launched an open call for a new project focused on Climate Tech. More than 400 companies applied, and Equinoct became the sole Indian startup to win funding from the maiden Climate Tech Cohort Venture Fund Project.
Equinoct has developed a community-sourced flood forecast and early warning system. The project combines work with local organisations, including workshops on disaster risk reduction through building community resilience, with manual data gathering on rain, river levels, and more.
The data is combined with initiatives, such as the distribution of thousands of tidal flood mapping calendars to individual households and involving children in information gathering and dissemination. The goal is to use community-sourced information to monitor and mitigate climate change-induced disasters and prevent loss of life and property.
The UNICEF funding will be used to automate some existing initiatives, including groundwater monitoring stations and a flood monitoring system, through the application of technology such as AI and machine learning.
Climate resilience is at the forefront of a host of new innovations, including the use of AI and satellite data to identify risks to utilities and a platform that helps smallholders with predictive analysis of weather and access to markets.
We sat down with the award-winning climate reporter Akshat Rathi to get a peep behind the curtain of his popular podcast, and came away with three lessons for effective climate communication.
Akshat Rathi is a senior climate reporter at Bloomberg News and the presenter of the organisation’s climate podcast, Zero: The Climate Race, where he discusses the challenges and opportunities on the road to net zero with CEOs, founders and climate tech entrepreneurs, politicians, and heads of international organisations. He is also the author of Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions. In the current environment, where disinformation is rife and audiences are growing tired of ‘green’ messaging, it’s a challenge for individuals and companies trying to make a positive impact on the planet to be heard – but not impossible if you bear three key things in mind.
1. Getting climate communication right means knowing your subject
As well as a host of awards for his journalism, Akshat Rathi holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, so he has a grip on how carbon-containing compounds behave. Journalism allows him to share knowledge and bring complex concepts to life for others. “I like to see things as they are and understand them,” he says. “It’s not my job to tell people what to do, but climate communication is important.”
Not least to counter the pervading ‘doomsday narrative’ that dominates discourse around climate change. “We overestimate how poorly we are doing but underestimate the impact if we don’t succeed.”
Negative messaging has an impact. A recent study by Euromonitor International found that “[Consumers] are tuning out messages that place the burden on their behaviour. Instead, they want organisations to step up and show proof of their eco pledges.” More broadly, the 2024 findings of the annual Edelman Trust Barometer show a worrying decline in trust in public institutions, including government and the media, with CEOs most trusted – but only just – to lead on bringing innovation to society. In terms of the case for climate action, Akshat regularly meets CEOs, politicians, and heads of international organisations, who all understand the need for change but whose organisations don’t seem to be engaged in any kind of action.
“The individuals who stand out are the ones who can articulate why things haven’t moved, point to the barriers, and show what they are doing to overcome those. Once you are at the level of CEO, you are typically doing all sorts of things and climate is just one part of it. A good test if someone actually cares about the climate is if they can talk to a climate reporter about their grasp of the subject and if they are able to articulate beyond the talking points a comms person has given them.”
2. Candour cuts through
It’s worth noting that if a CEO has made it onto the Zero podcast, they know their stuff. “I weed out the ones who don’t.” Outside of senior executives, Akshat has notched up an impressive list of interviewees – recent episodes feature the hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer and the former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres. And while at COP28 in Dubai, former US Vice President Al Gore stepped up to the plate and managed to surprise his host with his honesty.
“He’s the big guy – Al Gore has been in the game of communicating climate stuff since forever and I’m usually a little reticent about an interview with someone if they already have a platform. But then he dropped a bomb and had a huge rant against big oil which hadn’t happened for a while.”
Ahead of the COP28 summit, Al Gore did not hold back his criticism of the decision to host the event in the United Arab Emirates and led Akshat to feel that he might have even more to say. “So, it felt like good timing to speak with him and we ended up getting him to talk about how he wants to move away from the required UN consensus on decision-making at COP summits and how he is working on that.”
3. Talk about the problems and the solutions
Akshat’s recent book, Climate Capitalism, considers the climate emergency through the stories of 10 individuals who have proved that the “green economy is not just possible, but profitable”. The roll call of those featured in the book includes Wan Gang, former Minister for Science and Technology in China and founder of the country’s EV industry; CEO of Occidential Petroleum Vicki Hollub; Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol; and philanthropist and former CEO of Microsoft Bill Gates. Each story illustrates either the innovations pioneered by these people, or the strategies they have implemented that have already had a tangible impact on emissions. As he says in the book, “Our age will be defined by the climate emergency. But contrary to the doomist narrative that’s taken hold, the world has already begun deploying the solutions needed to deal with it.”
Akshat’s takeaways from davos
When we spoke, Akshat had recently returned from The World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos. “Climate is still on people’s minds, but it’s down on the priority list, which is understandable given the political situation. There was a lot of conversation around co-benefits in order to keep climate a priority, such as how can you combine health and climate, or energy costs and climate.
“One key announcement came via the WEF and the consultancy Bain regarding the First Movers Coalition, which started off focused on hard-to-abate sectors, such as steel and aviation, and is going to expand into food, nature, agriculture, and green procurement for regenerative agriculture products.”
Find Zero: The Climate Race on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen. To order a copy of Climate Capitalism, which is out now, follow this https://akshatrathi.com/book.
Spotted: The UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s latest report calls global drought resilience “a necessity.” Given that in the three years between 2016 and 2018, 70 per cent of cereal crops in the Mediterranean were damaged, and droughts continue to grow in severity and length, the outlook is challenging for the world’s agriculture systems.
Rising sea levels are affecting the quality of the water that is available to farmers, which, when combined with the stress of high heat, severely impacts crop yields. Heat and salty soil are two of the main stressors for a variety of plants, many of which are crucial parts of the global diet. Seeking ways to increase growing resilience without using toxins and chemical treatments, agritech startup SaliCrop has created a method that uses a seed’s natural response to stressors to make it possible to grow crops in arid, salty soil.
The company uses a combination of organic and physiological compounds to mimic environmental stressors. That then boosts a seed’s natural biochemical reactions and strengthens the plant’s ability to survive in more arid conditions. The treatments also increase the size of the fruits and vegetables grown and improve the plants’ resilience to pests.
SaliCrop is working with commercial growers of alfalfa, onion, and tomatoes, and their crop yields have increased between 16 and 40 per cent. In Europe, Africa, and India, the company is completing field trials with crops that include rice, wheat, corn, peppers, and broccoli and is seeing yields increase by between 7 and 15 per cent. Those results are particularly important in light of various climate projections that predict decreases in wheat yields of up to six per cent due to increased severity of weather events and overall conditions.
Improving the health of degraded soil is an essential aspect of reducing the carbon emissions from agriculture. Innovations in Springwise’s library helping make that change include using sound to enhance soil microbe growth and using microalgae to make desert soil arable.
Spotted: The volatility of weather is increasing as climate change affects all regions around the world. The International Energy Agency reports that “the temperature today is around 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre‑industrial levels, and global emissions have not yet peaked.” More changes are likely, making it even more challenging for businesses to plan for and predict future scenarios.
A new AI-powered forecasting engine has a solution to the volatility of weather and its impact on business cycles. Designed explicitly for the commonly used quarterly reporting format of businesses across many industries, Planette AI’s climate intelligence provides mid-range forecasts up to five years in the future. Reports are available seasonally, quarterly, annually, and by the decade.
The precision of the forecasts is made possible by Earth system models that incorporate ice, oceans, and land surfaces, as well as the traditional review of the atmosphere. The Planette team then adds artificial intelligence to the process to produce rapid, timely forecasts. Without the use of the AI, forecasts based on such detailed physics data would take hundreds of hours to create.
The workflow is patent-pending, and each forecast includes an analysis of 14 variables, including flood, fire, and hurricane risk, along with the potential for hail and tornadoes and the strength of the electromagnetic radiation from the sun (solar irradiance). Each forecast covers 25 square kilometres, and companies can request analysis for as many areas as needed.
Planette AI integrates its forecasts into each company’s own API and automatically updates forecasts quarterly. Each forecast also comes with a hindcast, where Planette AI reviews its predictions against actual events and measurements. Doing this helps strengthen the AI and provides businesses with insight into the system’s accuracy. So far, hindcasts for one-year forecasts have proven to be more than 80 per cent accurate worldwide, with up to 90 per cent accuracy in some locations.
As global weather patterns change, innovators are creating new methods of making what feels like constant change somewhat predictable. Examples in Springwise’s library include micro-climate forecasting for the energy sector and hyperlocal rain predictions for the tropics.
Climate fatalism stands in the way of a sustainable future but designers and architects are in an ideal position to overcome it, writes Katie Treggiden.
The mainstream media is finally waking up to the realities of climate change. As wildfires, floods and storms wreak havoc across the world, journalists and activists far braver than me are speaking truth to power to make sure we all know just how serious this thing is. And that is vital and right and proper.
However, fear doesn’t motivate action. The biggest obstacle for the environmental movement is no longer climate-change deniers – the evidence is incontrovertible to all but conspiracy theorists. It is those who are fully on board with the fact that humans are the root cause of some very real problems, but just don’t believe that we have what it takes to solve them. Our biggest climate challenge is no longer denial, but despair.
Fear doesn’t motivate action
To spark meaningful change, we need hope. We need to believe not only that a better world is possible, but that we each have the power to help bring it about.
I’m not talking about blind faith or passive optimism. I’m talking about active hope. I’m talking about waking up every morning and making a choice to believe that we can solve this wicked problem, and then choosing to act accordingly. And in today’s climate – political, economic and social as well as environmental – hope is an act of defiance.
So, how can architects and designers inspire defiant hope?
The Berkana Institute’s “two loops” model of systems change proposes multiple roles that people and institutions can play in the transition from a declining system to an emerging one. As the dominant system begins its decline, “stabilisers” keep what is required in place until something better is ready, while “hospice workers” support the process of decline, minimising harm to those still within it.
In turn, the emergent system gathers pace as “pioneers” come up with new ideas, products and systems and they are joined together into networks by “connectors”. Together, they form supportive “communities of practice” that enable them to grow their influence and, eventually, rise up to replace the old system.
In the transition from the declining linear take-make-waste economy to an emerging regenerative and circular economy, we might cast architects and designers in the role of “pioneers” – problem-solvers who can create pragmatic ways to move society towards a better world.
And that is valid; if architecture and design solve problems, then surely they should contribute genuine, impactful, and replicable solutions to arguably the biggest problem ever to have faced humanity.
In today’s climate – political, economic and social as well as environmental – hope is an act of defiance
However, I believe they can also play another part. On the emerging-system loop, there is a role for “illuminators”: people who paint a picture of what a better world might look like.
You see, there is no point in the model where the two loops touch, no simple juncture where people can step off one system and onto the next – they must take a leap of faith. Illuminators are the people who can give them the courage to do that.
One of the questions I get asked most often when I speak at conferences about craft and design in the transition to a circular economy is: “Okay, but how does it scale?”
Firstly, I would contend that scalability is what got us into this mess, and what we need instead are locally replicable solutions, but increasingly I am questioning whether everything we propose as an industry even needs to do that. Perhaps part of our role is simply to inspire hope – defiant, stubborn, active hope.
Kyloe Design’s kelp chair, showcased recently as part of Green Grads at the London Design Festival, may never make it into production and it’s highly unlikely that it will drive the wholesale replacement of leather across the furniture industry. But it does showcase the potential of this incredibly renewable, climate-positive, underutilised material, while provoking the curiosity to learn more.
From responsible material sourcing and advocating for worker welfare to using smartphone components anyone can switch out, Fairphone is offering real-world solutions. But its founder, Bas Van Abel, was realistic about what he could achieve directly, so launched the company with the stated aim of motivating the rest of the industry.
Part of our role is simply to inspire hope – defiant, stubborn, active hope
Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher might have criticised the “lack of architecture” at last year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, but what if contributions such as the German pavilion (pictured), which he described as nothing more than “piles of construction material”, are exactly what we need to inspire alternative ways of working? Entitled Open for Maintenance, the exhibition was billed as “an action framework for a new building culture” and collated materials recovered from previous installations to be used for repairing and upgrading buildings and public spaces all over Venice.
One of my favourite quotes about hope is from the author Arundhati Roy, who says: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” The question I would like to pose is: how can we, as an industry, help everyone to hear the sound of her breath?
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Several architects and designers have made it onto the inaugural Time100 Climate list, which recognises “true changemakers” who are making “measurable, scalable” progress in fighting climate change.
Compiled by Time magazine in collaboration with a panel of 10 prominent climate experts, the list includes business leaders across different industries ranging from singer Billie Eilish to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Among the three highlighted architects are William McDonough, also known as the “father of the circular economy”, and Diébédo Francis Kéré, who was commended for his “innovative works that are deeply rooted in sustainability principles”.
Diébédo Francis Kéré (top) and Mina Hasman (above) feature on the Time100 Climate list. Top photo is by Astrid Eckert and above by Nick Guttridge
“Having worked on projects in resource-scarce regions like Burkina Faso, I’ve witnessed firsthand the necessity for immediate change,” Kéré told Time.
“What I believe is fundamental for all of us, regardless of our roles, is to cultivate a profound awareness that change is imperative, and it is required urgently,” he added. “The climate challenge is not a distant future scenario; it’s a present reality.”
SOM’s sustainability director Mina Hasman was lauded specifically for her recent work on the Whole Life Carbon Accounting system, which assesses a building’s performance not just in advance but also post-completition to see how it measures up to its sustainability targets.
Architect and designer William McDonough also made it onto the list. Photo by Duhon Photography
In the world of design, fashion designer Stella McCartney was recognised for her ongoing work in funding, developing and trialling more sustainable textiles for the fashion industry, from mushroom leather to regenerated nylon.
And Jesper Brodin, CEO of IKEA franchisee Ingka Groups, was spotlighted as Time argues he has “consistently rolled out policies” to reduce the furniture giant’s carbon footprint such as this year’s move to start replacing fossil-derived glues with bio-based alternatives.
The Time100 Climate list also highlights several representatives of materials companies in their own right, in recognition of their contribution towards decarbonising our buildings and products.
Among them are Kidus Asfaw of Kubik, which is transforming plastic waste into low-carbon building materials, and Mark Herrema of Newlight Technologies, which uses marine microorganisms to make plastic packaging from captured industrial emissions.
Similarly, LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren was recognised for her company’s work in developing “the world’s first alternative aviation fuel derived from industrial waste gases”.
Time’s editors worked with in-house experts from the magazine’s climate action platform Time CO2 to compile a list of the 100 most influential climate leaders in business for 2023, based on nominations provided by a panel of sustainability leaders.
Among the judges were Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and architect of the landmark Paris climate agreement, and Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Jesper Brodin was recognised for his work in reducing IKEA’s carbon footprint. Photo by IKEA
Marcius Extavour, who is the chief climate solutions officer at Time CO2, said the team focused on highlighting people who have delivered “measurable, scalable achievements over commitments and announcements”.
“In the end, the inaugural Time100 Climate list produced no single perfect instance of complete climate action, but multitudes of individuals making significant progress in fighting climate change by creating business value,” he wrote.
The project is a spinoff of Time’s annual Time100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Customarily, at least one architect is included on this list, who is thereby deemed the most influential architect of that year, with previous winners including Kengo Kuma, Jeanne Gang, Elizabeth Diller and David Adjaye.
This article was written by Carl Elefante. Architecture 2030’s mission is to rapidly transform the built environment from a major emitter of greenhouse gases to a central source of solutions to the climate crisis. For 20 years, the nonprofit has provided leadership and designed actions toward this shift and a healthy future for all.
A year after the UN climate summit relaunch in Glasgow, many participants departed COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh searching for a silver lining. For some, the bright spot was action taken toward climate justice. Although the 2015 Paris Agreement acknowledged that circumstances in developed and developing nations differ, by establishing the Loss and Damage Fund, COP27 reconfigured the international climate action framework.
The nations primarily responsible for carbon pollution are not the most vulnerable to its life-and-death consequences. Global peace and justice demand that polluting nations (largely in the “Global North”) clean up their mess and help protect others (largely in the “Global South”) from the havoc they are causing.
While nations in the Global South earnestly turn to the Global North for financial support, there is hesitation to look to the Global North for climate solutions. Too many fail to account for regional conditions and cultures.
Sana’a’s foundation dates back over 2,500 years; the city in Yemen is filled with tower-houses built of rammed earth (pisé). | Photo by: Antti Salonen, Old Sana’a, CC BY-SA 3.0
In the building sector, the mismatch between accepted Global North solutions and the needs of the Global South is pronounced. For a century, the Global North has exported its energy-consuming glass towers and concrete roadways regardless of climate zone or social structure. Still-favored Global North models are far from problem-free today, and opportunities for appropriate regional adaptation remain largely unexplored, neglecting knowledge that could benefit both the Global North and South.
For those in “advanced” countries, it can be difficult to appreciate that less-modernized cultures have ideas and know-how that are relevant and valuable today. The oldest cities, like Damascus and Cairo, have been inhabited for at least six thousand years. Until about 1800, with the rapid proliferation of fossil-fuel-driven, resource-hungry, technology-infatuated modern-era development, cities thrived without creating a global climate crisis, ecological collapse or systemic resource exhaustion.
Consider the contrast between preferred modern-era and traditional construction materials. Today, concrete is the dominant construction material in developed countries. Concrete production accounts for eight percent (8%) of annual global greenhouse gas emissions — a number greater than the annual national emissions of Canada, Germany, South Korea and Saudi Arabia combined. Concrete does not decompose and cannot be reshaped or recycled — only down-cycled from a high-value material (structural concrete) to a lower-value material (aggregate).
Nicknamed the Manhattan of the Desert,’ Shibam is a vertical city made of sun-dried mud brick tower houses that dates back to the 16th-century (Yemen). | Photo by Dan from Brussels, Europe, Shibam (2286380141), CC BY-SA 2.0
In contrast, about one-third of the world’s population (mostly in the Global South) lives in buildings constructed with air-dried, clay-based materials like adobe and cob. The clay, sand and straw used to make them are locally sourced and decompose after use. Methods are so basic that many clay-based buildings are constructed by the people who occupy them — no global supply chain required. Incorporating wood-supported floor decks allows multi-story structures like those in the Yemeni cities of Sanaa and Shibam. Faced with lime-plaster stuccos, clay-based buildings are weather tight and durable, their heavy thermal mass beneficial in both hot and cold climates.
Some contemporary architects are taking note. Schools designed by 2022 Pritzker Laureate Diébédo Francis Kéré for his home village of Gando, Burkina Faso, are constructed by villagers from clay brick.
Yet, Kéré’s buildings are unmistakably modern. For the first school, Kéré introduced a non-traditional vaulted ceiling. The building is shaded by an overhanging sheet metal canopy on trusses fabricated from bent steel rods. With louvered wall openings, the canopy and vault produce a passive ventilation system: hot air at the canopy draws cooler air through openings in the ceiling vault and louvered windows below.
Gando Primary School Extension uses vaulted ceilings to increase the school’s thermal comfort by allowing hot air to escape upwards through integrated ventilation gap. |GandoIT, Kéré Primary School Extension Gando, CC BY-SA 3.0
To better engage diverse cultural and heritage perspectives in UN climate and sustainable development activities, a coalition of cultural organizations formed the Climate Heritage Network (CHN) in 2019. CHN was launched following the publication of The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Climate Heritage in Climate Action. Prepared by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), The Future of Our Pasts provides a detailed roadmap for integrating cultural and heritage considerations into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Compelling scientific evidence about the risk of climate change was first highlighted by the UN at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Carbon polluters in the Global North have not needed better science to act but greater resolve. Their inability to make sufficient progress for more than three decades has changed the international landscape. The Loss and Damage Fund adopted at COP27 acknowledges the responsibility of developed nations to act decisively and rapidly on behalf of all people.
Culture and heritage advocates such as CHN believe it must also begin a period of profound awakening in the Global North. Ideas that brought progress in the modern era have ossified into biases that are inhibiting the fresh thinking necessary to overcome the climate emergency. For those of us in the building sector, words written by Jane Jacobs ring loud and clear: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” Her wisdom is most urgently needed for global climate solutions.
Carl Elefante, FAIA, FAPT, is a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030 and Principal Emeritus with Quinn Evans Architects. Known for coining the phrase: “The greenest building is one that is already built,” Elefante writes and lectures nationally on historic preservation and sustainable design topics. Carl serves on the International Steering Committee of the Climate Heritage Network. In 2018, Carl served as the 94th President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He is a Fellow of the AIA and the Association for Preservation Technology (APT).
Spotted: Climate change may appear simple on the surface, but it is a rather complicated topic to teach. And schools could be doing a better job. Data collected by UNESCO from 100 countries shows that only 53 per cent of the world’s national education curricula reference climate change, and 40 per cent included only a minimal level of content. To help individuals better understand the climate crisis, a team led by Lancaster University – which also included researchers from the Universities of Strathclyde and Manchester – has focused on developing accessible and memorable ways of communicating sustainability-related topics – using fairy tales.
Fairy tales are not only for children, and the team is using them to respond to the various challenges of climate change, including electricity generation, low-carbon transport, and plastic pollution. The team has presented three “telling tales” on these topics, using the characters of mermaids, vampires, and witches as metaphors to communicate the typically complicated arguments more engagingly.
The mermaids, or sirens, highlight the potentially dangerous allure of renewable energy sources in the UK, which can cause us to ignore wider issues like excessive energy consumption. Vampires serve as embodiments for cars, sucking the wellbeing out of the environment and communities, while the witches are a metaphor for the broader ‘witch hunt’ against plastics, which puts a narrow focus on the material itself, rather than spotlighting the unsustainable and ineffective systems that can make plastic so harmful. The team worked with illustrator Véronique Heijnsbroek to create corresponding images for the stories.
The team hopes this concept will inspire the science community to communicate energy-based social science research in more digestible formats to engage with those outside of academia. This August, the team is planning to conduct a virtual workshop with other researchers and illustrators to further develop and broaden their collection of characters.
Climate education is essential, and Springwise has spotted many innovations in the archive helping to make the topic more teachable. These include wooden blocks that teach children about energy and using Minecraft to demonstrate the impact of climate change.
Spotted: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations found that about one-third of the world’s soils are already degraded. This threatens global agricultural production and food security. But one company is aiming to improve soil quality.
Initially founded in 2020 by Azadeh Farajpour Javazmi with the support of the European Union (EU) parliament, the BetterSoil movement launches national and international projects to improve the quality of soils for improved climate resilience and sustainable food production. The company aims to promote sustainable agriculture both in practice and the political environment, by mobilising decision-makers at the level of the European Parliament.
The initiative’s goal is to close the gap between theory and practice in terms of knowledge about soils and their quality in sustainable agriculture. BetterSoil connects science and research with the knowledge of farmers around the world to understand how to best improve soil fertility and build up soil humus – a nutrient-rich substance made from decomposed plant and animal matter.
Working closely with scientific advisors, BetterSoil develops tailored soil recipes for different regions, since each country has its own specific climate, crops, and needs. All soils are created with the BetterSoil science-derived principles in mind: appropriate soil management and agroforestry, and the use of compost and biochar.
BetterSoil also offers education on sustainable development in order to raise public awareness, motivating people to rethink how they use resources and contribute to sustainable development. The company addresses individuals, companies, teams, and schools – it is also launching a BetterSoil Inhouse Academy.
Healthy soil is integral to the world and its inhabitants, and improving and maintaining soil quality is vital for sustainable and reliable food production. Springwise has also spotted pre and probiotics that improve soil health and plant patches that monitor crop stress.
We live in an age of mass production and mass consumption – never before have so many products and services been so readily available to us. And at the same time, leaps and bounds in the transport industry over the past 100 years have made journeys quicker and easier than previously thought possible, allowing us to cross oceans in mere hours without lifting a finger. But all of these advancements come at a cost.
The modern era was largely built on fossil fuels, with our cars, homes, and production methods all emitting vast volumes of greenhouse gases. And these gases have been detrimental to our climate – since the 1880s, the Earth’s temperature has risen 0.08 degrees Celsius per decade, and this rate of warming has more than doubled to 0.18 degrees Celsius per decade since 1981. With this rising temperature comes an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including drought, floods, hurricanes, and tsunamis, particularly in developing countries.
In 2021, the famous naturalist David Attenborough called climate change “the biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced”. If global warming isn’t stopped or drastically slowed, the results will be catastrophic. Such a huge challenge, naturally, does not have a simple answer, but collaboration across multiple industries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent further pollution will allow us to get global warming under control. Slowing climate change is possible, but we will need to get creative.
Innovators across all industries are exploring ways we can all cut carbon and effectively tackle the climate crisis, as well as developing technologies to help build resilience in the face of changing climate and more extreme weather.
There are many exciting solutions fighting climate change that will be featured at ChangeNOW in Paris between 25th and 27th May. Take a look at five of the best.
One global survey in 2015 revealed that over a third of all adults had never even heard of climate change. The researchers emphasised that basic education and public understanding of climate issues are vital to garner support for climate action. Awareness has grown since the survey, but 2021 UNESCO data from 100 countries still showed that only 53 per cent of the world’s national education curricula refer to climate change, and even when it is mentioned, it is not made a priority. This is where Climate Pitch comes in. The company delivers public sessions or workshops and conferences for a specific business to help build public knowledge of climate change. The sessions combine visual presentations with clear explanations and exercises to help audiences quickly understand the issues, and motivate them to engage on a personal, professional, and collective level. Read more
As is set out in the European Green Deal, Europe aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Central to achieving this ambition is encouraging the energy transition, and the European Union (EU) is well on its way – renewable energy sources made up 37.5 per cent of gross electricity consumption in 2021. But in order to make renewables the primary, if not only, energy source in Europe and beyond, we need to continue development of technologies that use reliable and consistent green energy sources. Doing just that is startup Minesto, which has created a ‘kite’ with a turbine that ‘flies’ underwater to generate electricity from predictable tidal streams and ocean currents. The device is attached to vessel with a tether, and a control system onboard autonomously steers the kite in figure-of-eight motions. This movement pulls the turbine through the water at a water flow much higher than the actual stream speed – and this faster speed generates extra power. Read more
Around the world, the loss of crops caused by untreatable pest damage or plant disease is estimated to be between 20 and 40 per cent. And at the same time, increasing extreme weather is putting additional pressure on growers. With the global population continuing to rise, the agricultural industry needs to find effective and sustainable ways of building resilience. One way of doing this is taking advantage of technology. Data science company Fermata has created an artificial-intelligence-powered (AI) solution, called Croptimus, that helps growers spot disease early and track plant changes over time. With the technology, farmers can cut labour costs and reduce pesticide usage by 25 per cent. Read more
One study conducted by Oxfam in 2021 that analysed the investments of 125 of the world’s wealthiest billionaires discovered that up to 70 per cent of their emissions come from investments in polluting industries, resulting in an average of 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year. As much as we may be trying to fight climate change with daily actions, there needs to be a drastic change in where the world’s money is going and what it is funding. Enter Goodvest, a fintech that makes sure your savings are not going towards harmful sectors, such as the production and extraction of fossil fuels, armaments, tobacco. Goodvest analyses the entire carbon footprint of a user’s investments in order to limit the global warming trajectory of funds, helping individuals invest responsibly without contributing to climate change. Read more
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that a staggering 931 million tonnes of food are thrown away in households, retail, and the food service industry every year. Not only does this mean resources are wasted with the growing of this food, but when it’s not disposed of properly and ends up in landfill, food products break down and release methane, which is detrimental for climate change. To help reduce the volume of food being thrown away unnecessarily, Ryp Labs developed StixFresh. Once placed on produce, these food-grade stickers make items last up to twice as long, reducing the chances of food getting thrown away due to spoilage. Read more
Springwise is a proud partner of ChangeNOW, which takes place in Paris 25-27 May 2023. As the world’s largest event for the planet, the three-day international summit brings together entrepreneurs, businessleaders, and policymakers to accelerate change. Tickets are available now and Springwise readers can get a discount of 20% by using the code: SPRINGWISECN23
