Spotted: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s synthesis report contains a final warning to the world of the dangers of not keeping climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius or below. With temperatures already 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, there is a very slim window of time to push carbon emissions to a peak before they must rapidly decline. And Canadian startup Carbon Neutral Club has spotted a gap between corporate intentions and results that is slowing down progress.
More than 70 per cent of companies are setting sustainability goals, yet very few are achieving them, something that researchers say comes down to a lack of agreement on what to do and how to take action. Carbon Neutral Club helps reduce that uncertainty by turning employees into the driver of a company’s climate change work. The Club’s Sustainable Behaviours Platform supports workforce Climate Culture through personal carbon footprint measurements, Scope 3 measurements, team action goals, carbon offsets, and sustainable rewards.
Scope 3 measurements help employees choose the most sustainable travel and food options while providing detailed company-wide emissions reports. Carbon offsets support science-backed, third-party verified carbon emission reduction projects, and the Club provides a database of sustainable brands that give participants discounts on products. Carbon Neutral Club is available to individuals as well as companies of all sizes, and although currently available only in North America, the company plans to expand globally as quickly as possible. A recent $1.4 million CAD funding round will be used to support that expansion.
Timely, quality data is crucial in the fight to stop irreparable climate damage. Springwise has spotted innovations like an energy-tracking platform and supply chain decarbonisation support that are helping companies make sense of the volume of information and then translate that data into effective change.
Spotted: The global food market is worth more than $9 trillion (about €8.5 trillion) and is going to continue growing. This volume of food has an equivalently large carbon footprint, something growers are aware of and working to change. Helping to capture those improvements is French software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Carbon Maps. Carbon Maps’ platform automates emissions calculations for food products.
Such complex calculations rely heavily on algorithms, and Carbon Maps uses internationally recognised data standards and scientific models for its computations. Product life cycle assessments (LCAs) examine data from basic growing techniques to water usage, processing systems, recycling and more. By utilising the power of artificial intelligence (AI), Carbon Maps enables large industrial food distributors to assess the sustainability of a range of their products, even those that use a multitude of ingredients.
As well as providing eco-scores for each foodstuff, the Carbon Maps system allows for easy updates of LCAs as information changes. A grower may alter their farming practices meaning less water is needed, so the automated emissions calculation system makes it easy for that improvement to be included in the scores for the many products that use those crops.
Carbon Maps includes details such as biodiversity, animal welfare, and soil health in its calculations, allowing for a much more holistic view of the sustainability of an item. The company is currently working with two businesses on pilot programmes, and recently closed a €4 million seed funding round that will be used to expand its operational capacity.
Reducing carbon emissions is such a global priority that – as Springwise has spotted– innovations in two of the worst polluting industries, food and fashion, are pushing the technology and tracking capabilities ahead as quickly as possible.
Spotted: Much of the focus on the use of nature to capture carbon has remained above ground – on forests and trees. But ecologist and climate scientist Dr Colin Averill argues that the role of an “entire galaxy” below our feet has been ignored. Soils are made up of millions of species of bacteria and fungi and this microbial biodiversity is essential to healthy plant growth – and efficient carbon capture.
Dr Averill’s team in the Crowther Lab at ETH Zürich has spent years documenting fungi’s impact on tree growth, finding that restoration of underground fungal communities can significantly accelerate plant growth and carbon capture. To develop this concept further, Dr Averill founded Funga, a startup that plans to restore fungal biodiversity to accelerate carbon sequestration in forests.
Funga will use DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence (AI) to generate profiles for a healthy fungal microbiome in around 1,000 different forests. This will help it identify the right combination of wild fungi in each location to achieve accelerated tree growth and the highest amount of carbon sequestration. Funga will also establish around 1,000 hectares (about 2,500 acres) of forest and soil fungal communities – creating an ‘ideal’ environment for carbon removal.
Funga has recently closed a $4 million (around €3.8 million) seed funding round and is working with forest landowners and the foresters to make fungal microbiome restoration a reality.
A growing number of researchers and innovators are focusing on the role of microbes, and especially fungi, in cutting carbon emissions and moderating climate change. Springwise has spotted the use of fungi as a meat replacement, and the application of biome science to create heat-resistant coral.
Dezeen teamed up with PlasticFree to present its interdisciplinary forum of talks focussing on the climate crisis in New York City. Watch the talks here.
The event brought together creative professionals across various disciplines to explore why the issue of climate change continues to be discussed at length instead of being addressed practically with the many proposed solutions that currently exist.
Featured speakers included chief innovation officer of Pangaia Amanda Parkes, Slow Factory founder Celine Semaan, and Birsel + Seck co-founder Ayse Birsel, among other designers and climate specialists.
The event followed the launch of the PlasticFree database, an online platform created in a bid to help architects and designers source plastic-free materials for their projects and avoid misinformation around more sustainable alternatives.
The subscription-based service provides detailed reports on more than 100 plastic alternatives that have been vetted by scientific advisors, highlighting their properties, production and sourcing in order to offer reliable and trustworthy information.
Creative professionals from different disciplines discussed the climate crisis
The platform’s advisory council comprises scientists, business leaders and industry figureheads including Stirling Prize-winner David Chipperfield, designer Tom Dixon and curator Aric Chen.
Partnership content
This competition is a partnership between Dezeen and PlasticFree. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
In the US, about 13% of total CO2 emissions come from heating residential and commercial buildings. Because so many buildings rely on natural gas and heating oil, significant opportunity for reducing heating emissions lies with electric heat pumps. Heat pumps have been popular in the South for decades, but there are a lot of questions about how well they work in colder climates.
“A huge portion of our global emissions come from heating buildings,” says Brian Stewart, co-founder of Electrify Now, a volunteer organization devoted to electrification. “Since our homes are a big part of that, it’s important for us to understand the options we have for zero-carbon heating.”
Recently, researchers from the University of California, Davis did the math on switching from a gas furnace to an electric heat pump. Even with the mix of fuels that currently powers the electrical grid, a heat pump will produce far fewer emissions than a gas furnace, no matter where in the US you live. As the grid gets cleaner, the difference between electric and gas heating emissions will only continue to grow.
“We know that electrification works from a decarbonization standpoint, and we know that these heat pumps work in many situations,” says Stewart. “But we still have so many people wondering: Will heat pumps work in cold temperatures?”
Heat pumps, not just for warm climates
“With a standard heat pump, you start to lose efficiency as temperatures dip below 40°F,” explained Shawn LeMons, Performance Construction Manager for Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US. “So, the system needs more electric power to extract heat from colder air.”
That’s where cold climate heat pumps come in.
Also known as high-efficiency heat pumps, these high-tech systems are specially designed to operate at a higher heating capacity in lower temperatures. “Cold climate heat pumps may look similar to standard heat pumps, but their internal technology and computer programming are far more advanced,” LeMons added. “They’re specifically built to function at subzero temperatures, all while operating as efficiently as possible.”
Location, location, location
Cold climate heat pumps are purpose-built for heating comfort and ease of use in inclement weather. You can use them in any “heating-dominated” region where HVAC systems spend most of the time heating instead of cooling. This includes climates with frequent snow and ice, as well as coastal climates with cold rain and fog. As long as your system is operating properly, it should be able to handle prolonged subzero temperatures, even at elevations thousands of feet above sea level, explained LeMons.
Households in milder temperature zones may also prefer a cold climate heat pump when the weather outside starts to get snowy or icy. You may not necessarily need a cold climate heat pump year-round, but having one will give you added benefits and comfort during the cold winter months.
Buying a cold climate heat pump
“Generally, because of the special features and programming, cold climate heat pumps can cost around 20% to 30% more than standard heat pumps,” said Jonathan Moscatello, Business Development Manager for Daikin North America. That’s because you’re paying for the system’s ability to pump heat in colder temperatures, and that’s where cold climate heat pumps shine.
“Compared to traditional heat pumps, they produce more heat per dollar spent, making them a better value in the long run,” said Moscatello. And that’s before you consider the potential tax incentives you’ll get when you make the switch!
Take note: Some manufacturers put all their premium technology into their cold climate models, so you’re also paying for features unrelated to the cold climate performance, Moscatello pointed out. So don’t be afraid to shop around for the best value.
What should you look for when picking out a cold climate heat pump? It depends on whom you ask. Start with the EnergyStar and Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) published standards for cold climate heat pumps. Most utility and government rebate programs also use these specifications.
“Manufacturers also have their own standards for what qualifies a heat pump for cold climate operation,” added Moscatello. “Examples of this include Mitsubishi’s Hyper-Heat line and Daikin’s Aurora line.”
Ratings and features to look for
LeMons and Moscatello recommend the following guidelines when shopping for a cold climate heat pump:
Rated performance at 47°F.
Maximum performance at 5°F.
Capacity ratio at 5°F. This is the ratio of #1 and #2 above; the closer this number is to 100%, the better it can handle very low temperatures.
Coefficient of performance at 5°F You want this number to be below 2. The lower the number, the better the system’s heat efficiency.
Published performance at very cold temperatures, such as -13°F, -15°F, or -22°F. Keep in mind that these numbers give an idea of how the heat pump will perform on the coldest days. Many systems continue to work well at even lower temperatures.
Some typical features to look for:
Inverter compressors and advanced motors for greater energy efficiency
Advanced programming for cold climate operations, such as hot discharge air temperatures and “just right” airflow
Intelligent defrost cycles and drain pan de-icing
Optional wind baffles for an outdoor unit
At the end of the day, you’re buying a heating appliance, and you want to make sure it’s purpose-built for cold winter comfort. So, definitely read reviews and ask around before you buy!
The US Department of Energy’s Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Technology Challenge is working with manufacturers to develop next-generation electric heat pumps.
Busting heat pump myths
Myth #1: You need a backup system to handle the coldest winter temperatures.
“Dual fuel is a legitimate path, but it’s not really necessary with a cold climate heat pump,” explained Stewart. Sure, standard heat pumps may need an alternate heating source like a furnace or boiler to take over when temperatures drop below freezing. Cold climate heat pumps, on the other hand, are equipped to handle the most frigid winters.
Laura Martel, Research and Evaluation Manager for Efficiency Maine offered an example of cold climate heat pump performance. “Caribou is a town in northeast Maine that’s IECC zone 7, the coldest climate zone in the United States. Homes in Caribou need their heaters for 6,444 of the 8,760 hours in a year.”
According to data from Efficiency Maine, it’s cheaper and more efficient to heat a home in Caribou with a cold climate heat pump than with a dual fuel system, natural gas, propane, or oil. While natural gas or propane systems may become more efficient when outdoor temperatures drop below 0°F, that only accounts for around 500 total hours each year in Caribou. Therefore, natural gas is more efficient than heat pumps only 5% of the time. For propane, that number drops to 1%.
“When you look at annual operating costs for various systems, heat pumps save people between $1,000 and $3,000 or more per year. Even if you switch to natural gas or propane for the small fraction of time that they’re cheaper, you’d only save an additional $26 per year, max,” said Martel. So, even though cold climate heat pumps may cost around $2,500 more to install than boiler systems, the yearly cost savings can quickly add up to make up for that initial expense.
Myth #2: Turning down the heat at night saves energy.
“We’ve been told for decades that we should turn down our home heater systems when we’re sleeping to save energy. That works great for boilers and furnaces, but I wouldn’t recommend it with heat pumps,” says Martel.
While furnaces can quickly blast heat into your home, heat pumps take longer to raise the temperature. When you turn your heat down at night, you reduce the rate of heat output of your system, temporarily lowering your energy usage. But when you turn it back up in the morning, your heat pump has to work extra hard to get the temperature back up. It doesn’t help that it’s usually colder in the early morning.
“Turning the heat down or off at night just isn’t as efficient as picking a comfortable temperature, setting it, and leaving it alone,” she said.
Still have questions?
If you’re interested in learning more about heat pumps, check out Electrify Now’s electrification fact sheet. You can also use this savings calculator from Rewiring America to estimate the tax incentives you’d receive from installing a heat pump in your home. Note that this article springs from Electrify Now’s cold climate heat pumps webinar, so check out their YouTube channel for more eco-friendly tips and technologies.
Designers might have had a hand in causing climate change but they are also key to solving it, according to the chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, who addressed the Design Council’s sustainability conference as it kicked off alongside COP27.
“In the past, we have created great wealth through remarkable design, from Newcomen’s steam engine to the very latest in nuclear technology,” John Gummer, also known as Lord Deben, said at the Design for Planet Festival.
“The trouble is we didn’t recognise that what we were designing actually had within it the ability to destroy.”
Lord Deben spoke at the Design for Planet Festival
Gummer, a Conservative former environment secretary and top climate adviser to the UK government, said this means that designers now have both the responsibility and the unique ability to reimagine products in a way that doesn’t harm the planet and its people.
“Sustainable development demands good design,” he said. “We won’t win the battle against climate change unless we design the solutions.”
“It is good design, which will enable us to use the smallest amount of our resources as is possible, that will enable us to reuse, that will enable us to extend, that will enable us to be flexible, that will enable us increasingly to grow – but to grow in a way that is not at the expense of others and the planet.”
The two-day event in Newcastle aims to encourage and support designers in taking an active role in solving the climate crisis.
This should involve making sustainable low-carbon designs that are still beautiful and easy to use, Gummer argued.
“I don’t think being attractive is something to be ashamed of because what it means is that we create things, which people want to use and want to use properly,” he said.
“One of the fundamentals of beauty is now going to be that they enhance, extend and enable our lives rather than being at the heart of our destruction.”
Designers “fed up” with industry’s lack of action
Gummer is the chairman of the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee, which is responsible for advising the government on emissions targets and monitoring its progress in achieving them.
Last week, Gummer warned that the UK’s attempts to tackle emissions have so far been “appalling“, leaving the country “off track” for meeting its climate targets.
This has been echoed by experts including Cambridge University engineering professor Julian Allwood, who argued that the UK’s net-zero strategy is as unrealistic as “magic beans fertilised by unicorn’s blood”.
The UK’s design industry had a similarly slow start, launching its Design Declares campaign a full two years after architects, engineers and other creative industries declared a climate emergency.
Announced in September as part of London Design Festival, the initiative hopes to unite studios that are “fed up with a lack of industry momentum”.
The Design for Planet Festival is taking place from 9 to 10 November at the V&A Dundee. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
High-density, low-rise urban housing is the key to accommodating another three billion people over the next 80 years without costing the Earth, writes architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti.
By the year 2100 there will be 11 billion people on the planet, according to the United Nations – three billion more than there are today. You might rightfully ask how we can house an additional three billion people when nations around the globe are struggling to provide adequate accommodation for those in need today.
Meanwhile, the world is already experiencing the extreme impacts of anthropogenic climate change, as well as an omnipresent energy crisis fuelled by the war in Ukraine.
A surging population risks putting an even greater strain on the environment
A surging population risks putting an even greater strain on the environment and comes with even more demand for energy. No one, particularly not in the West, has the right to wish these newcomers away or deny them the housing, mobility, technology, food, and yes, the energy, they will need to live their lives.
How can our housing needs be part of the solution rather than part of the problem? How can we use today’s technologies to design new housing that is not only sustainable, not only low in embodied energy, but also truly carbon negative?
We simply don’t have the technology today to build carbon negative towers
We can conserve where we can, such as by adaptively reusing some of our existing building stock, particularly older office buildings made obsolete by the pandemic. But this alone won’t make a dent in our impending housing needs – we must build, and we must build better.
I for one am tired of hearing about solutions that don’t have a chance of widespread, affordable, global adoption for decades, even the great technology of mass-timber skyscrapers made from carbon-sinking, environmentally friendly and fire-retardant wood.
I love a good skyscraper, but we simply don’t have the technology today to build carbon negative towers.
We’re also decades away from realising clean grids in our existing cities, where most global population growth will occur, because of challenges ranging from inefficient transmission lines to the fossil fuel lobby’s chokehold on our governments.
The tyranny of today’s challenges demands a widely attainable answer now. We cannot wait until 2050.
Goldilocks-scale housing would enable us to house everyone while drastically reducing the emissions impact of our homes
The answer is hiding in plain sight: a “Goldilocks” type of high-density, low-rise urban housing that sits between the scale of sprawling single-family houses and large-scale towers, advocated by many architects and urbanists for decades.
From the hutongs of Beijing to the rowhouses of Boston, this scale of housing has created some of our most beloved urban neighbourhoods.
If adopted en masse, it would enable us to house everyone while drastically reducing the emissions impact of our homes.
Importantly, at two to three stories – but no higher – under the international building code this low-rise housing is required to have only one communal stair if wheelchair accessible units are provided at grade.
“Goldilocks housing could finally provide affordable, communal, equitable housing for communities in dire need of it,” argues Vishaan Chakrabarti
That allows for less concrete, lower building costs, and more community connection by dispensing with elevators and the banal experience of double-loaded corridors, while small shops and workspaces can also occupy the ground floor.
It is also, based on research my own studio conducted alongside engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, the maximum scale possible for carbon negativity with today’s technology.
In most sunny climates, which is where we anticipate the most population growth, this Goldilocks prototype hits the sweet spot between the number of residents it can house and the amount of roof area needed for enough solar panels to supply more energy than these residents need.
Solar panels, which are decreasing in cost while gaining in efficiency, could also be supplemented with existing state-of-the-art battery systems that level out solar supply and user demand to provide a constant energy source.
Because of its structural simplicity, Goldilocks housing can be built by local workers in accordance with local climates
Air conditioning and heating can be provided through electric pumps that are readily available today. These can create thermal storage by producing ice or hot water off-peak for use on-peak, enough at the Goldilocks scale to offset their energy use.
Additional sustainability measures, such as systems to compost food scraps and solid waste, can also be implemented with today’s technologies and can be self-contained within Goldilocks housing unlike in large towers where much more space is required.
The footprint is compact, leaving room for substantial tree and ground cover, decreasing stormwater impacts, reducing the heat island effect, and lowering the demand for air conditioning.
Because of its structural simplicity, Goldilocks housing can be built by local workers in accordance with local climates and customs out of simple local materials, like wood or brick, both of which have relatively low embodied carbon compared to concrete and steel.
We need not fear new neighbours
Goldilocks housing could finally provide affordable, communal, equitable housing for communities in dire need of it.
Architects can work with communities to make this low-rise housing appealing, visually and socially, integrating it into the lives of existing neighbourhoods.
When woven into the fabric of our cities, the Goldilocks scale is dense enough, at almost 50 units per acre, to support mass transit, biking, and walkability, connecting people with jobs, schools, parks and other daily destinations in an environmentally friendly way.
This isn’t rocket science. It is advocacy for simple, small-scale housing with solar panels above, transit below, known technologies throughout, all organised into affordable green, mixed-use neighbourhoods.
If the entire world lived at this scale, all 11 billion of us in 2100 would occupy a land mass equivalent to the size of France, leaving the rest of the world for nature, farming and clean oceans.
According to the International Energy Agency, the Goldilocks model offsets so much carbon that it would effectively cancel out the emissions of every car in the world if we all lived this way. The impact would be staggering.
We need not fear new neighbours. We can accommodate 11 billion people without being beholden to autocrats and fossil fuel companies who continually threaten our collective existence.
We don’t have a lack of land or technology. We just have a lack of vision and will, because the answers are hiding in plain sight.
Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, urbanist, and author focused on cities and sustainability. He is the founder and creative director of global architecture studio Practice for Architecture and Urbanism. He served as director of planning for Manhattan under former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, working on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and the preservation of the High Line. He has presented multiple TED Talks, with the most recent on Goldilocks-scale housing.
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Designers need to stop feeling guilty about making products and start using their creativity to become part of the climate solution, writes Katie Treggiden.
Eighty per cent of the environmental impact of an object is determined at design stage. This statistic, which is usually credited to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, often gets bandied about in discussions about sustainability, and it is absolutely true. From material choices to end-of-life considerations, by the time an object goes into production its fate is largely sealed from a sustainability point of view.
But when designers hear that statistic, what they often hear is: “80 per cent of this mess is my fault.” And it really isn’t.
By the time an object goes into production its fate is largely sealed from a sustainability point of view
A report published in 2017 found that 71 per cent of industrial greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 could be attributed to 100 fossil fuel producers. Much like the tobacco industry before it, the energy industry has not only contributed to the problem but worked hard to curb regulations and undermine public understanding.
Oil and gas giant Exxon conducted cutting-edge climate research decades ago, and then pivoted to “work at the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed”, a 2015 investigation by Inside Climate News found.
In 1989, then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher gave a powerful speech at the UN. “It is mankind and his activities that are changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways,” she warned. “Every country will be affected and no-one can opt out. Those countries who are industrialised must contribute more to help those who are not.”
These arguments were not new, even then, but coming from her they gained traction and environmentalism went mainstream.
However, Thatcher’s position was short-lived. In her autobiography, Statecraft, she writes: “By the end of my time as prime minister I was also becoming seriously concerned about the anti-capitalist arguments which the campaigners against global warming were deploying.”
And so, in a perceived trade-off between planet and profit, she chose profit.
The climate crisis might have been resolved before many of today’s designers were even born
Her policies in the UK led to urban sprawl that threatens biodiversity, to prioritising investment in roads over rail and bus services that could help us all reduce our carbon footprints, and to the privatisation of water companies that results in polluted rivers and oceans to this day.
But her influence in the Global South was even more profound. Under her leadership, Britain, together with the US, led World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation moves that forced more than 100 indebted countries to undertake now widely discredited “structural adjustment” programmes. These programmes pushed for deregulation and privatisation that paved the way for transnational farming, mining and forestry companies to exploit natural resources on a global scale.
In her autobiography she credits books by Julian Morris, Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer for her dramatic U-turn. All three authors were members of free-market think tanks receiving funding from the fossil fuel industry.
Had Exxon acted ethically on the results of its own research, had Margaret Thatcher stuck to her guns instead of being lured by the temptations of free-market economics, and had the momentum she galvanised continued, the climate crisis might have been resolved before many of today’s designers were even born.
If we’re looking to apportion blame, let’s look to enterprises making excessive profits while caring for neither people nor planet
It might well be their fault. It is certainly not yours.
But what about that statistic? If 80 per cent of the environmental impact of an object is determined at design stage, doesn’t telling designers that it’s not their fault let them off the hook? Quite the opposite.
Think about the last time you had a brilliant idea, solved a problem, or came up with an innovative solution. How were you feeling at the time? Guilty? Overwhelmed? Hopeless? I’m guessing not, because those feelings are not the soil in which creativity thrives. I’m guessing you were feeling curious, optimistic and collaborative – all the impulses that draw designers to our industry in the first place.
To design is to solve problems and this is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced
We need designers to stop feeling guilty, so they can reconnect with those feelings, tap into their creativity and become part of the solution.
The climate crisis is a “wicked problem” – a term coined by design theorist Horst Rittel to describe social or cultural problems that seem unsolvable because of their complexity, their interconnectedness, their lack of clarity, and because they are subject to real-world constraints that thwart attempts to find and test solutions.
In other words: there are no magic bullets. Previous generations might have kicked the can down the road hoping that future technology would save us, but we no longer have that luxury.
So, if you’re a designer, none of this is your fault, but it is your responsibility. To design is to solve problems and this is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. It is not something the design industry can solve alone. Of course we need politicians and big corporations to get on board, but we can lead the way by demonstrating the power of creativity and innovation.
We have a unique, and perhaps the final, opportunity to tackle this issue head on and do something definitive. But we can’t do that mired in guilt.
To overcome the climate crisis, we need to design, not from a position of pessimism and shame, but in the mode in which we all do our best work: when we are driven by curiosity and excited about a future that, together, we can help create.
Katie Treggiden is an author, journalist, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design. She is the founder and director of Making Design Circular, a membership community for designer-makers who want to become more sustainable. She is also a Dezeen Awards judge.
Spotted: While climate change is undoubtedly leading to more extreme weather events, it can be difficult to understand how climate change is impacting on local weather. After all, how are we to determine if an unseasonably warm day is due to global warming or is simply normal variation in temperature? Climate Central is attempting to answer this question with the Climate Shift Index (CSI), a free tool that reveals the level of influence of carbon emissions on daily high and low temperatures.
Climate Central, is a non-profit organisation and an independent group of scientists who research and report the facts about the changing climate and how it affects people’s lives. Climate Central uses science and big data to generate local information that makes climate change personal and helps show what can be done about it.
The CSI indicates how much more likely or frequent high temperatures and overnight lows have become in a given location. The index uses observation and model-based calculations, along with a clear and easy-to-follow colour-coded map covering the entire continental US, and a simple numeric scale. For example, a CSI level of 3 means the day’s temperatures were made at least three times more likely than they would have been without climate change.
Benjamin Strauss, Climate Central CEO and chief scientist points out that, “Climate change is invisible to most people, but it already affects our daily lives. When it’s too hot to safely work outside, play sports, or walk down a city street, the Climate Shift Index will reveal its fingerprint. When crops wilt, when tornadoes or fires erupt in unseasonal heat, the Climate Shift Index can put those events in context.”
Awareness of the impact of climate change is often seen as a first, and important, step to effecting change. This is why we are seeing a growing number of innovations aimed at measuring local effects of climate change, to help individuals and professionals better counter them. These range from data management platforms aimed at forestry professionals to a ‘heat map’ of climate injustice.
In 1938, British scientist Guy Callendar demonstrated how records from nearly 150 weather stations showed that temperatures had risen over the past century – and that carbon dioxide levels had risen over the same period. At the time, meteorologists widely dismissed what was then called the ‘Callendar Effect’.
Today, the scientific evidence for man-made global warming is overwhelming, and climate change has emerged as the defining issue of our age. Greenhouse gas emissions are leading to rising temperatures, with scientists estimating that we have already caused warming of 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Limiting further temperature rises to 1.5 degrees could prevent the worst effects of global warming. But the world is not on track to meet this target.
The structural changes needed to limit climate change will require the collaboration of everyone in society, and necessitate action from society’s biggest stakeholders –notably governments. But innovation has a vital role to play in tackling this most existential of issues.
Understanding the impacts of climate change
If we are to effectively adapt to the reality of climate change and take action to limit its effects, it is crucial that we understand how temperature rises and extreme weather events will impact global eco-systems. Over the past decades, scientists have gathered an extensive body of research on the effects of climate change, but innovators continue to develop new ways to collect data on climate impacts. For example, a partnership between marine environment non-profit Beneath The Waves, and digital data experts Hexagon AB, is using airborne lasers to map seagrass meadows. This technique will allow researchers to track year-on-year changes and understand the role that these eco-systems play in the overall health of oceans. In the future, windborne sensors, could also be used to monitor climate change.
Climate models are also incredibly important for forecasting the impacts of a changing climate. Nividia is developing an advanced supercomputer for modelling the entire earth. The extremely high resolution of this ‘digital twin’ for the planet will enable the development of even more accurate models.
Education and awareness
Around the world, people have become accustomed to seeing and hearing news about climate change. Yet, despite this familiarity, innovators are coming up with new ways to prevent complacency and ‘climate fatigue’. One of the challenges of climate change as a policy issue, is that it can seem impersonal and intangible in our daily lives. Tackling the first of these issues is an app called ISeeChange. The app alerts users when weather in their area is abnormal, while also allowing them to share and discuss climate impacts and solutions.
A marketing campaign from Australian insurer Suncorp is tackling the issue of intangibility. Citing the statistic that only three per cent of disaster funding is spent on prevention, the company introduced a prototype home designed to withstand bushfires, floods, and cyclones – weather events that are becoming increasingly common because of climate change. The campaign provokes consideration about how and when the costs of increasingly common extreme weather events are borne.
Climate finance
The cost of tackling climate change will be considerable. And target 13.A within SDG 13 highlights the importance of providing financial support to developing countries to help them mitigate climate change. The target challenges developed countries to jointly mobilise $100 billion in finance per year from all sources – both public and private. Governments will be key in mobilising climate finance, but innovators also have a role to play – especially as the Climate Policy Initiative estimates that climate finance must increase by at least 590% to meet global climate objectives.
One company that is developing an innovative method for mobilising climate finance is Generate Capital. The firm partners with companies or communities to provide them with the capital to build sustainable infrastructure projects – such as geothermal power plants. Rather than raising private equity funds, which must usually be returned after ten years, Generate lets institutional investors by a stake directly in the firm, so that they can invest for the long term.
Adaptation and resilience
In addition to finding ways to limit further climate change, innovators are coming up with solutions that help to make communities more resilient in the face of the reality of rising temperatures. For example, a UN-backed project has developed an app that leverages advances in AI and smartphone technology to help farmers fight plant diseases linked to climate change. In an urban context, Czech startup ECOTEN has used geospatial data to create a temperature map of Vienna that the city will use to plan adaptations in response to the climate crisis.
Supporting vulnerable countries
The burden of climate change is not spread evenly across the globe, with developing countries, and small island nations particularly at risk. Solutions that are tailored to the needs of these communities—and that involve local people—are particularly crucial. For example, in Tanzania, a charity is teaching women to farm climate-resilient sea sponges to protect their income as fish stocks and seaweed cultivation are impacted by climate change.
Coral reefs are particularly important for the livelihoods of those living in coastal areas. Worldwide, an estimated one billion people benefit either directly or indirectly from the ecosystem services coral reefs provide. Sadly, coral eco-systems are among the most vulnerable to climate change with global coral cover falling by half since the 1950s. In response, Portuguese company Blue Oasis Technology has a plan to save the world’s coral by building engineered reefs.
Words: Matthew Hempstead
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