With July 2024 being the hottest month ever recorded, and some of the worst forest fires sweeping across Brazil, the urgency of climate action has never been clearer.
I arrived in New York at the end of September, along with 75,000 fellow climate activists and had the chance to dive deep into discussions covering mainly 3 overarching themes:
Women + Biodiversity + Reforestation
These are the pillars of a regenerative future.
My highlights and insights include:
1) We cannot solve the climate crisis without solving the biodiversity crisis. We are in the midst of what the UN calls the triple planetary crisis – a climate crisis, a nature/biodiversity crisis and a pollution crisis, all compounding in complex ways. And Climate Week made clear the urgent need to put nature and biodiversity at the heart of the climate change debate.
Nature is now seen as a mitigation solution just as much as an adaptation solution. It is estimated that it can provide up to a third of global mitigation efforts, but current investments in nature-based solutions need to triple by 2030 for this to happen. And there are challenges, including de-risking and measurement of investment key performance indicators.
“Climate is often perceived as the primary focus for action, when actually climate is dependent on nature. With more than 50% of GDP moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services, its profile at Climate Week was an opportunity to recalibrate the focus on mitigation alone and included the launch of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework. - Amy Brachio, EY Vice Chair, Sustainability
2) Watching the "Mrs. Robinson" documentary screening which showcased the amazing journey Mary Robinson has trailblazed throughout her career as an environmental and social activist, starting with being the first women president of Ireland, chair of The Earth Elders and founding partner of Project Dandelion - a women-led campaign for climate justice - together with the amazing Pat Mitchell!
2) Speaking in a room FULL OF AMAZING WOMEN who inspire me at Project Dandelion's Brazil in Focus event. Words can describe what an honor it was to share, be heard and supported by women like Mary Robinson, Pat Mitchell, Ronda Carnegie Sonia Guajajara, Anielle Franco, Célia Xakriabá, Ana Toni, Puyr Tembé, Rachel Vestergaard Frandsen, Mariana Ribeiro, @Elizabeth Bagley, Gabriela Gutiérrez Morales, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, Brooke Bland! WE ARE ALL DANDELIONS!
3) Dancing and celebrating at the Daughters for Earth event at Diane von Furstenberg's flagship store & the Earth Disco by Sierra Quitiquit. We need more dancing like this at climate conferences! Thanks for creating these spaces.
4) The Biochar Revolution is real and here to stay! Amazing people are developing incredible projects, technologies, and use-cases (think cement with biochar). I'm really excited about the opportunities this technology has for Brazil and the impacts on soil health & productivity. One company reported a 25% decrease in mortality rates when using biochar in their tree planting project! Wow!
5) The Regen Network Development PBC roundtable on Biodiversity Credits with Terrasos and the The Landbanking Group. Great discussions around credits vs. assets, what does integrity mean for the biodiversity market, what is the role of technologies, and sharing and learning from our experiences of actually doing the work.
6) Speaking and connecting at an event put on by the talented Mrs. Chante Harris - a climate activist doing amazing work around scaling and funding innovative climate solutions. Chante truly inspires me, the way she can hold space, drop into the heart space and communicate to the room is impeccable. Thank you for inviting me to speak! At the event we also heard from amazing women (Stacy A. Swann, Maggie Cutts, Shelly Xu, Justin Winters, Lara Pierpoint) who shared really important data:
- female-founded teams receive 2% of venture funding
- female-led companies performed 63% better than male-led companies.
- only 1 in 4 C-suite executives is a woman. Out of those, only 1 in 5 is a woman of color.
- women-led investment funds outperform those led by men by 40-50 basis points.
- 99% of CEOs of Oil & Gas Companies are men.
7) Businesses need to take initiative and action. Across the priority areas – such as nature, community inclusion, transition finance, or balancing technological innovation with policy reform – the role of the private sector is undeniable.
“At Climate Week, the overriding message for business and society was that, with just over six years to halve emissions and to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, the time for incremental progress is over.
“Closing the gap between commitments and action is complex but critical. At COP28, supply-chain collaboration is a big opportunity for business to contribute to progress on finance flows, adaptation, mitigation and a just transition.
“SMEs account for 90% of global companies, and collaboration with large corporations across value chains can build capacity and broaden the shoulders for the scale of investment, change and skills transfer needed between developed and developing markets.”
Veli Ivanova, EY Americas Chief Sustainability Officer
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