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More than 30 leading financial institutions, collectively with over US$ 8.7 trillion in assets under management have committed to tackle agricultural commodity-driven deforestation as part of broader efforts to drive the global shift towards sustainable production and nature-based solutions.  

The Africa Green Finance Coalition (AGFC) will help bring African countries together to pool resources, share learning and create a pathway for increased flows of green investment capital to the continent.

COP26 Finance is on November 3. See our COP26 Finance Day Guide events covering the UK Presidency Programme, Climate Action Zone Programme and Green Horizon Summit.

It’s time we stop focusing so much on the cascade of destruction that climate change may bring, and start talking about the cascading benefits, argues Chad Frischmann, Senior Director, Drawdown Solutions, Project Drawdown.

The financial industry is a critical enabler of efforts to decarbonize the global economy. Supported and underpinned by strong policy action, every company, bank, insurer, and investor will need to adjust their business models, develop credible plans for the transition to a net zero-carbon, climate resilient future, and then implement those plans.

Subscribe to the High-Level Champions’ daily COP26 newsletter for a one-stop round-up of everything you need to know, each and every day in Glasgow. 

This year’s UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, marks the 26th time since 1995 that world leaders have gathered to confront global warming. But the realization that industrial activity was causing climate change, and discussions about what to do about it, began much earlier.

Nonprofit art hub for sustainability, ReGenesis and the UN Climate Champions convened a group of artists, representing a range of disciplines, to open up the conversation on climate and help make it accessible to everyone.

On the first day of COP26, “Nature’s Baton”, the symbol of Relay4Nature, will be passed from Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, to Lord Zac Goldsmith, UK Minister for Pacific and the Environment.

If we are serious about achieving the dual goals of enhancing access to modern energy services and combating climate change in the long term, all stakeholders need to take decisive action. For lasting change, young people can be an important part of the solution, argues Sarah Hambly, Partnership and Communications Manager, Energy Saving Trust, co-Secretariat, Efficiency for Access.

Rapid phase-out of emissions from coal power, which so far have been the single largest source of global temperature increase, is one of the first and most critical steps the world must take to deliver on the 1.5-degree goal.

Covid has hit culture hard. In Glasgow, half of the city’s 160 cultural organizations have no plans to reopen due to financial distress. It’s time to come up with a master plan to save the arts, which allows the industry to more easily deacarbonize, says Annika Ericsoon, founder of digital art condition report tool, Articheck.

The COP26 Finance Day Action Zone event will highlight how actors across the global financial system are taking near-term action towards net zero by 2050 consistent with 1.5C and are committed to implement and accelerate the transition.  

Investors in 66% of listed companies are collectively at risk of losing $8.4 trillion due to declining ocean health and climate change if business as usual continues. Here’s why a healthy ocean is at the core of the global economy.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is bringing a ferocious, talking dinosaur to the United Nations’ headquarters to shine a spotlight on the hundreds of billions of dollars governments spend every year propping up the fossil fuel industry.

Responsible for nearly 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions, the built environment is proving to be a driving force behind global climate change mitigation efforts.

A new report commissioned by IUCN and the UNFCCC High Level Champions and steered by a working group of African partners ahead of Climate COP26 in Glasgow provides compelling, quantitative evidence of the positive impacts of regenerative agricultural practices

A shift from viewing food waste as a problem to one where it can provide a rich foundation for regenerative farming can fundamentally accelerate restoring land soil health, as well as improve food resilience, argues UN Climate Champion Regenerative Agriculture Fellow, Leah Bessa.

From oyster die-offs and coral reef bleaching, to marine heat waves and harmful algal blooms, coastal communities around the world are feeling the effects of ocean acidification. A leading group of ocean experts discuss the significance of investing in SDG Target 14.3.

The UN High-Level Champions for Climate Action, Gonzalo Muñoz and Nigel Topping, and the global partners of the UN Marrakech Partnership have published the result of months-long collaboration to strengthen and ground discourse on the role of hydrogen in decarbonization efforts.

For fisheries to remain sustainable in the face of climate change, fisheries managers, scientists and governments will need to think beyond the current socio-economic structures in place, argues Dr Rohan Currey, Chief Science & Standards Officer at the Marine Stewardship Council.

Africa’s youth population is growing rapidly and is expected to reach over 830 million by 2050. The Africa Youth Initiative on Climate Change explains why this growing force for good must have a seat at the climate decision-making table.

A master plan to achieve 5% zero-emission fuels in shipping by 2030 will help guide decisions, actions, and allow us to monitor the progress of the sector’s Race to Zero.

UN High Level Climate Action Champions, Gonzalo Munoz and Nigel Topping have welcomed a new IEA report that urges G7 countries to provide leadership in the energy transition and reach net zero by 2050 at the very latest.

“The opportunities for adapting, while shifting our economy to be prosperous, sustainable and equitable, are plenty – we just have to have the will and the courage to seize these opportunities” – Camille Manning Broome, President and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) explains why a happy ending for Louisiana is possible.

International climate change and human rights lawyer, Tessa Khan discusses the law’s role in holding governments and companies to account, the limitations of the legal process, and the eroding social license of the fossil fuel industry.

The roadmap to ending pollution from transportation is here, says electrification advocate and UN Climate Champions’ Special Adviser, Monica Araya. In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Araya introduces Drive Electric: a global campaign to retire the polluting internal combustion engine in time to avoid climate disaster.

The COP26 Presidency, Mark Carney’s COP26 Private Finance Hub and the High Level Climate Action Champions are calling for private financial institutions to announce new ambitious actions at COP26.

More than 150 industry leaders and organizations representing the entire maritime value chain – including shipping, cargo, and finance – are calling on world leaders ahead of COP26 for ambitious, urgent policy actions to fully decarbonize international shipping by 2050, and make zero-emission shipping the default choice by 2030.

Countries must commit to decisive action at COP26 to limit global warming to 1.5°C if they want to sustain a healthy and green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new report by the World Health Organization.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) – a net zero alliance responsible for more than $90 TN in assets in 40 countries across the financial sector, chaired by UN Special Envoy Mark Carney – today publishes a call for greater and faster climate action from G20 leaders to build a net zero global financial system and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“The science is clear, business as usual is not an option and the pace we had in the past, cannot be the pace in the years to come,” H&M CEO, Helen Helmersson discusses the company’s race to become circular and climate positive.

About 195 countries are expected to finalize a new accord to to halt and reverse losses of the planet’s plants, animals and ecosystems at the two-part COP15 UN summit.

Every day, more than 500 ships pass through the narrow strip of ocean separating the UK from continental Europe, creating huge amounts of pollution, with sulphur and nitrogen emissions a particular problem.

The tragic reality is that cooling is heating up the planet further. The sector accounts for 7% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the market for cooling appliances is growing rapidly.

The future of climate change is based on local solutions to local problems. In accordance with a Kenyan Swahili adage ‘Haba na haba hujaza kibaba’; small efforts build up to create long lasting impact. This is the chance to learn, educate and take action towards a sustainable Kenya, and a sustainable world. 

Many of the world’s largest companies are among hundreds of business leaders appealing to the G20 to collectively agree to strengthen their national climate targets at the pivotal G20 and COP26 talks.  

Investing in nature and biodiversity has the potential to bring about both economic and ecological benefits that would greatly outweigh the near-term costs of transition.

As we get closer to the pivotal climate conference in Glasgow, COP26, political activity and media coverage increases, but this huge, global, political event can feel far removed from our daily lives. The Giki Guide COP26 explains how we can all get involved.

“There are some difficult, but critically important changes that can happen only with your leadership. The most critical of these is stopping harmful agricultural subsidies, which do not work for the farmer, society at large, nor our Mother Earth,” Farmer & CEO, European Carbon Farmers, Mateusz Ciasnocha’s letter to world leaders.

“Achieving our shared climate goals demands an all-hands of deck collaborative effort supported by unifying, not divisive, politics,” Carlos M. Duarte, a member of Extreme E’s Scientific Committee and a Distinguished Professor of Marine Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

How does a sector – defined by the movement of people and in the midst of a crisis – get to net zero by 2050 at the very latest? 

Following recent research that shows fewer than one in four of the world’s largest companies are on track to meet basic climate change targets and Europe will miss its 2030 climate goal by 21 years, the new London Declaration commits signatories to embed key climate considerations into every new standard that is created.

Cities can support the transformation needed in food systems to tackle global challenges like hunger, poverty and climate change, says Mayor Giuseppe Sala of Milan, UN Food Systems Champion and Chair of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact.

Billions of people are overweight, millions are hungry, one third of food is wasted and the way the world produces, processes and consumes food generates one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Thursday at the first global summit on the future of food.

New tool launches to help identify businesses committed to climate action

“Many little children can no longer play outside as they would have some years back. The warming climate is shifting weather patterns in Zambia creating stronger and more frequent storms. In some months, the heat is unbearable” – Prudence Muchinouta’s letter to leaders.

The rapid growth of solar and wind power in recent years has breathed hope into global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the most dangerous effects of climate change.

In the framework of the Climate Breakthroughs, and recognizing the strategic role of the transport sector in climate action, the High-Level Champions have launched the “Zero Emissions Mobility: Commitment for Latin America and the Caribbean”.

The pharmaceutical and medical technology sector is the latest to join a group of 15 major industries that have achieved a major breakthrough in climate action.

“We will all be watching to see what you will do to promote life, or whether you will promote death and destruction” – founder and exectuive director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, Catherine Coleman Flower’s letter to world leaders.

We are almost out of time to limit temperatures to 1.5C and urgent – and collective – action across the whole economy is required to keep the promise Paris alive, impassioned panellists agreed at the opening day of Climate Week NYC.

50% of the global workforce has the potential to be affected by, and directly fight, climate change. According to LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue, if we are to secure our existence on a stable planet, we need a whole-of-the-economy approach that involves redefining many of our professions. 

Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) can provide around 30% of the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5° or 2° C, says a new report.

“Coronavirus has led to the greatest disruption in higher education in a generation. As London Fashion Week resumes, now is a good time for reflection and planning. As we look forward to a new academic year, we should stop regarding students as consumers but as fellow citizens in pursuit of solutions to the world’s urgent climate crisis.”

Across the globe, momentum is building to increase adoption of light-duty passenger electric vehicles (EVs) and make traditional vehicles — with an internal combustion engine — go the way of the horse and cart.

With 40 days to go before the pivotal COP26 climate conference in Glasgow this November, over half the sectors that make up the global economy are now committing to halve their emissions within the next decade and achieve near-term emissions reductions targets known as the 2030 Breakthroughs. 

Six renowned public figures, from the worlds of politics to science, reflect on the task before us.

The implications of the latest UNFCCC NDC Synthesis report could not be clearer: the world has not made anything like enough progress to tackle the climate crisis. Without immediate action, we risk losing our race to zero emissions and the better world promised by the Paris Agreement.

The road to a fully decarbonized electricity system is clear. We must rapidly phase out fossil fuels whilst simultaneously accelerating our expansion of renewables. The transition to clean power is the crucial foundation of the energy transition, and achievement of the Race to Zero breakthrough ambition is a key step forward in achieving our sector goal of net zero.

18 European power companies, including ten of the largest European utilities, have approved science-based targets that will result in combined emissions reductions of 303.5 million tonnes by 2030. But new data shows US companies are lagging behind.

It’s time for shipping to step out of the shadows, to be forthright and act boldly, taking the initiative on carbon before the industry is forced to take action. Waiting for regulation to emerge from an agency and effectively drive change is not the right answer, argues Ami Daniel Co-Founder and CEO, Windward & Lord John Browne, Chairman, BeyondNetZero, and Chairman, Windward.

“At COP26, we ask you to speak out for the ocean as it has no spokesperson, no government, no pavilion or voice. Without a healthy ocean, we cannot hope to combat climate change. The two are fundamentally interlinked, it would be as if to ride a bike without wheels, or sail a boat without canvas. It just will not work.”

It was a perfect storm of circumstances that propelled Barbados to begin driving an exemplary and entirely sensible green energy revolution: a convergence of appealing prices, industry and finance support and favourable legislative reforms. 

“I was honoured to chair today’s second meeting of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) CEO Principals Group. The Group discussed the progress being made on GFANZ’s priorities, workstreams and deliverables for COP26 and beyond. We will continue to drive this work forward, to help unlock the systemic change needed to achieve the global transition to net zero.” – Mark Carney

As Europe aims to eliminate the sales of polluting vehicles by 2035, Monica Araya, Special Adviser, High Level Champion for Climate Action, COP26, considers how such an ambitious policy can transform electric transportation across the globe.

Sue Peachey participated in the UK’s first ever Citizens’ Assembly on climate change. Here she discusses the role of citizens in driving climate ambition with UN High Level Champion for Climate Action, Nigel Topping.

Almost half of the world’s 2.2 billion children face a “deadly” threat from climate and environmental shocks, according to a new report.

On 9 September 2021, 4.00-5.30 pm JST, UN Climate Champion Nigel Topping, together with the UK’s Ambassador to Japan, will convene senior Japanese and international business leaders for a roundtable event to showcase Japanese business climate leadership.

“The world’s leaders should spell out in advance of the COP, what they intend to do to ensure that voices of the most vulnerable are heard — and listened to”, Jim Wallace (Lord Wallace of Tankerness) is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

“The only thing that is missing is the will. The will to step forward and do what needs to be done. You may feel it is difficult, but this is no time for cowardice” – a former military intelligence officer’s contribution to Our World in Your Hands.

“In 2009, I was in my first semester in college when typhoon Ketsana struck the Philippines and nearly took my life. Many would look at supertyphoon Haiyan in 2013 as the turning point for climate action in my country,” climate campaigner from the Philippines, John Leo Algo’s letter to leaders.

If food waste was a country, it would be the third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, after the US and China.

There is a huge opportunity to better harness ocean resources in a responsible manner to provide nutritious, safe and nature-positive food, explains Sophie Ryan, CEO of the Global Salmon Initiative.

We need a new generation of financial backers from institutional investors to family offices, and from banks to insurers to put capital to work in the ocean, write Chip Cunliffe and Karen Sack, Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance.

In the race against climate change, every fraction of a degree by which the global temperature rises counts. Every country – and every business – must bring the best they have to this race with the shared goal of winning it, argues María Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition.

2030, nearly 40% of the world’s population will live in vulnerable housing. Disasters are increasing in frequency due to the impacts of climate change, and those living in lower income countries feel the consequences of climate change the greatest. CEO of Build Change, Elizabeth Hausler’s letter to world leaders.

“She’s shouting. Howling at you! And so am I, so are all of us. That you presume to represent” – activist, author and founder of Planetari, Cindy Forde’s contribution to the Our World in Your Hands project.

The only way to reverse some of these catastrophic patterns, and to regain a kind of stability in climate and weather systems, is “climate repair”, argues David King & Jane Lichtenstein from the University of Cambridge.

“I’m not certain how much the natural world will have changed but I am certain that my children or grandchildren will ask me, who did this?” Kenyan climate activist, Elizabeth Wathuti’s letter to world leaders.

The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report is a clear and sober reflection of our current pace. Ambition must be followed by immediate action in line with halving global emissions by 2030.

A meeting in Rome last week prepared the ground for September’s UN food summit where actions will be launched for healthier, greener ways to produce and consume food.

A project aimed at inspiring a wave of stories about what positive climate futures might look like for communities around the world has been launched by The Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.

“To the leaders of the developing countries, including my own, I would like to say: be bold! Show to the world your vision of how you want to transform your communities in order to survive AND thrive post-pandemic and amid continuous and exacerbated climate threats” — Vladislav Kaim, UN Secretary General’s Youth Advisor on Climate Change.

The heavy industry and long-distance transport sectors hold the key to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. Show that we can decarbonize these, and we can decarbonize the whole global economy, argue Faustine Delasalle, Co-Executive Director, Mission Possible Partnership & Anthony Robert Hobley Co-Executive Director, Mission Possible Partnership.

Today is Earth Overshoot Day. The date that tells us that we’ve once again used up all biological resources that our planet regenerates during a year. 

To help catalyse action, the UN High Level Climate Champions have updated an existing Breakthroughs paper to include additional specificity on halving emissions by 2030 across more sectors of the real economy.

“Climate change isn’t about countries: it’s about people. It’s about the world we want to live in for generations to come and the species we share it with. In other words, it’s far too important to leave just to world leaders – this crisis requires all of us to step up” – Governor of California, Gavin Newsom explains what’s at stake.

“Please, reach into your dreams. Into a future that can be. And draw what you see.” – Peggy Liu, Chair of the Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE).

Formula One World Champion and winner of 23 Grands Prix, Nico Rosberg on the power of sport, gender equality and the future of e-mobility.

“Africa for years has been experiencing the impacts of climate change and these are becoming more and more catastrophic. It has been our past, it is our present and might become our future if we don’t Act Now.” Ugandan Climate Activist, Evelyn Acham’s submission to the Our World in Your Hands project.

Every human and natural system — from oil extraction to the flight of a flock of starlings — can be seen as a set of repeating patterns. These patterns can be disrupted for good or for bad, says Nigel Topping, the High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26. He shares three rules of radical collaboration that could positively disrupt the patterns of the global economy and help humanity tackle the world’s greatest threat: climate change.

Mbaarak Abdalla from Mombasa County, Kenya, explains in his letter for Our World in Your Hands, why he is on a mission to restore and safeguard the mangroves.

A sustainable, zero-carbon global economy will, literally and figuratively, rest on concrete. It is the world’s most-used building material. Here’s how to unlock a future built with sustainable, zero-carbon concrete.

Net zero is powerful as a rallying message but we must be more aware of who gets to make use of the ‘net’, argues Clare Wildfire, technical principal and global practice leader for cities, Mott MacDonald

“We have to address who is leading, and how we are leading, to usher in transformation more quickly and more fully than we’re seeing right now,” Dr Katharine Wilkinson on gender inequality, culture, imagination, and the good and the bad of net zero commitments.

A new study that mapped the “blue carbon” uptake from marine and coastal ecosystems around the world highlights how natural sinks and climate change redistribute wealth around the globe.

EU policymakers unveiled their most ambitious plan yet to tackle climate change, aiming to turn green goals into concrete action this decade, and in doing so lead the way for the world’s other big economies.

Actions to conserve, restore, or improve the management of land and coastal ecosystems must be integral to corporate climate strategies, argues a new report from multistakeholder coalition, The Natural Climate Solutions Alliance.

If you could write a letter that would be read by the world’s leaders, what would you say?

Abundance in a zero-emissions world means no longer exploiting and wasting finite resources, but rather valuing the nature that sustains and protects us, explain Michael R. Bloomberg , Saleemul Huq and Agnes Kalibata, Global Ambassadors for the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience.

“We are building commitment to a whole economy transition because we know we won’t get to net zero in a niche” – Mark Carney, UK Prime Minister’s Finance Advisor and UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, speech at the Venice International Climate Conference.

The High Level Champions for Climate Action team is seeking three highly motivated, talented individuals to join our finance team immediately for the final sprint to COP26.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) has launched a new workstream to mobilize private capital for critical climate solutions in emerging markets.

When companies wake up to the dangers of being the last to leave the fossil fuel economy and instead see the competitive advantages of a quick transition, they will become accelerators for change, explains Svante Axelsson, national coordinator of Fossil Free Sweden.

New ways of innovating, operating and partnering will be needed to create a true shift to circular economy. And digital players, including telecommunications operators, have a key role to play, explains Allison Kirkby, President and CEO, Telia Company.

The UN High Level Champions have designed a toolkit to help us all understand what a credible net zero commitment looks like, and which commitments lack the substance needed to deliver a zero carbon world in time.

The High Level Climate Champions and Marrakech Partnership programme for COP26 will showcase momentum from the whole of society, and focus on key issues to drive ambition and action.

Retailers H&M Group, Ingka Group (IKEA), Kingfisher plc and Walmart have launched a new climate change initiative – the Race to Zero Breakthroughs: Retail Campaign.

The heathcare sector has a responsibility to train, educate, advocate and influence decision and policy-makers, collaborate widely through its research work, and engage the youth in inclusive programmes, according to Dr Claire Bayntun, Vice President of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy and the Greater London Authority; Catherine McGuinness, Chair of the Policy and Resources Institute at the City of London Corporation; and Georgia Gould, Leader of Camden Council discuss the monumental challenge and opportunity of a net zero London.

In order to win the Race to Zero we also need a generation of thoughtful leaders who will make healthy decisions for us and our planet, argues Anu Ramamurty, founder of Kat Kid Adventure.

“Fighting climate change helps us create a better world. And net zero is the lever to get us there,” Farhana Yamin speaking at a town hall meeting convened by the UN High Level Champions on June 28.

More construction companies must actively play a role in 2021 as the most decisive year in climate action history. 

Amongst the UK Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan and the Heat & Buildings strategy, the Green Skills Taskforce is due to report this summer on how to deliver three million green jobs in the UK by 2030

When Ed Hawkins, a professor of climate science at Reading University in the UK, wanted to find the simplest way to tell the story of global warming, he turned to an image.

In picking up from the wreckage wrought by Covid-19, the climate crisis and the devastatingly fast loss of nature and biodiversity, we find ourselves on the cusp of a great regeneration. It’s a regeneration of our health, of our planet, and of our economy. 

Argentina’s third largest city Rosario’s urban agriculture program has evolved from an approach to put food on the table, to a tool for job creation, and more recently to a strategy for tackling climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have worked together on a report which finds that we can either solve both nature and climate crises or solve neither.

To win the Race to Zero, all companies must put sustainability at the heart of their business model and undergo their own green transformation, argues Jakob Askou Bøss, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Stakeholder Relations at Ørsted.

All forms of ecosystem degradation have one thing in common: When people hurt ecosystems, they also hurt economies, biodiversity and the climate.

As the global climate crisis worsens, an increasing number of people are being forced to flee their homes due to natural disasters, droughts and other weather events. These people are sometimes called “climate refugees”. Who are these climate refugees? And how can the international community properly address this issue?

A growing, economy-wide momentum proves we are well on the way to creating a healthier and more resilient future. We have taken the decisive first step, setting the destination. Now we have to start moving — fast.

To mark the day, UK commercial property and investment company, Landsec hosts Race to Zero’s birthday video on its famous Piccadilly Lights.

The G7 Summit was a landmark moment in a landmark year for climate action, and a critical stepping stone to the biggest international climate conference since Paris.

In the last year, 4,500 non-state actors from across the global economy have committed to halving emissions by 2030, joining the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign. The rapid growth shows that halving emissions by 2030 is the new normal.

One of the world’s most carbon intensive industries, the fashion industry, is joining forces to drive faster, wider emissions reductions across the fashion value chain between now and 2050.

A coalition of stakeholders from across the climate action ecosystem have developed a roadmap aimed at steering the fashion industry on a path to a zero carbon future.

A short environmental documentary about Seagrass meadows in Cornwall, the location for this year’s G7.

“Our big opportunity to look beyond what has always been and build a world that we can all thrive in.” A poem by Kumi Naidoo.

The opening session and launch of the Public Consultation on the Future of Race to Zero is taking place on Wednesday June 2.

Here’s how we make the 2020s an era of recovery and regeneration and making sure that within the decade, nature is absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, supporting jobs and livelihoods, and allowing us to thrive in spite of climate shocks.

On June 15 and 16, to mark the first anniversary of the Race to Zero, high-level speakers will discuss the transformational shifts in the economy and society that are already taking place today, accelerated by radical, multi-stakeholder collaboration – and what is needed to accelerate the transition to a net-zero world.

The zero carbon home is well within our grasp. The technologies we need already exist and are coming down in cost. Juliet Davenport OBE, Founder of Good Energy explains how we get there.

IKEA estimates that the new program will avoid 670,000 tonnes CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to approximately 3% of the total climate footprint of the IKEA value chain.

Data has shown that 40.5% of African youth respondents outlined digital inclusion as a particularly difficult challenge while 27.7% of respondents had challenges accessing reliable and affordable energy.

The decarbonization pathway for shipping is rapidly becoming clearer. All signs point to hydrogen based fuels playing a critical role and the rapid increase in green hydrogen commitments from governments indicates that fuel supply will not be an issue. So what’s holding the sector back?

The first meeting of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) CEO Principals Group has taken place. The Group discussed GFANZ’s priorities, workstreams and deliverables for COP26 and beyond.

On World Ocean Day 2021, the global wind industry has been joined by a growing coalition of voices calling for governments to urgently raise their offshore wind ambitions.

The ocean must be embraced as something that connects and shapes humanity rather than isolates it. A shared responsibility rather than a final frontier of resource extraction.

World leading shark expert Cristina Zenato explains that if we are to mend our broken relationship with the natural world then first we have to fix our disconnect with the ocean.

Adventurer, conservationist, writer and photographer, Cristina Mittermeirer has been published in hundreds of publications, including National Geographic and TIME. She believes photogaphy is a critial tool in the world’s Race to Zero and Race to Resilience.

Adventurer, conservationist, writer and photographer Cristina Mittermeier discusses the role of storytelling in the protection of the ocean with COP25 High Level Champion for Chile, Gonzalo Muñoz.

Offshore wind will be an increasingly vital technology to deliver large-scale, reliable and affordable renewable energy, which can accelerate the global energy transition, argues Alastair Dutton, Chair of the Global Offshore Wind Task Force at the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

As we head towards COP26, governments need to recognize the importance of the ocean in delivering the Paris Agreement, argues Ørsted Chairman, Thomas Thune Andersen.

8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans every year, making up 80% of all marine debris from surface waters to deep-sea sediments. Chair of the Surfrider Foundation, Susie Crick explains why we must break our addiction to single use plastics.

We have to repair our connections with the ocean if we are to receive a wave of ocean benefits, argues eminent marine ecologist, Professor Carlos M Duarte.

The University of Chile’s Center for Climate Research and Resilience (CR)2 has officially joined the Race to Resilience as the Technical Secretariat to the global campaign.

The High Level Champions have decided to set up an Expert Review Group (ERG), to provide technical advice on Race to Resilience.

Since 1991, 37% of lives lost due to extreme heat globally can be attributed to climate change on average, according to a new study which gathered data from 43 countries.

We can transform fear into empowerment but we need tenacity, entrepreneurship, resources and appropriate tools – as well as a commitment from all  generations, argue marine ecologist Carlos M. Duarte and Russian model Ria Serebryakova.

As the world accelerates its transition to a net-zero, resilient future and recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, green maritime transport, offshore renewable energy, nature-based ocean solutions, and sustainable low carbon seafood, represent critical solutions.

Our parent’s generation put a man on the moon eight years after JFK’s commitment to do so in May 1961. In this decisive decade, when faced with the threat of a climate emergency, how can we do any less? In corporate boardrooms across the world, the challenge is increasingly being accepted: climate change poses an […]

With roughly half of Europe’s steel assets up for reinvestment this decade there is a unique opportunity to kick-start the transition by switching those production assets to zero-emission technologies.

Progress on climate action in critical sectors of the global economy, including steel, shipping, green hydrogen and nature is well underway.

40 healthcare institutions representing more than 3,000 hospitals and health centres have credibly committed to halve their own emissions by 2030 under the Race to Zero.

“As the world around us is changing, both in terms of the green energy revolution and in terms of the climate conditions we will have to operate in, if we do not change, adapt and add our ability to reduce emissions, then we will be left behind technologically, operationally and socially,” Lieutenant-General Richard Nugee CB CVO CBE.

The roadmap shows that net zero has become mainstream, fossil fuels must be phased out urgently and that those businesses that work towards cutting their emissions in line with 1.5C will be in the best position to thrive, argues We Mean Business CEO, María Mendiluce.

Major economies have agreed to end support for coal production and recognize the “critical role the ocean and seas play for biodiversity and in regulating the Earth’s climate”.

One third of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees, face extinction globally. Professor Lindsay Jaacks explains why we need to think very carefully about releasing chemicals specifically designed to kill into the environment.

The solutions to the great 21st century challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss become clearer if we view them through the ocean’s blue lens, argues Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean.

The Maldives is creating an innovative floating city that will help mitigate the effects of climate change and stay on top of rising sea levels.

“If we can do something good for our health, and it’s also good for the planet, what a winning combination!” Dr Leslie Cho, professor of medicine and section head of preventive cardiology and rehabilitation, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio.

An overgrown dumping ground is being transformed into a 224-acre solar farm of 70 megawatt solar panels which will eventually produce enough green electricity to power 1,200 homes.

The Net Zero by 2050 Emissions Scenario – a pathway in line with 1.5˚C – will map out a major transformation of the global energy system.

Alok Sharma said COP26 will be the world’s best chance of building a cleaner, greener future and “our last hope of keeping 1.5 degrees alive”.

“We need to connect the dots and find ways to get communities activated and engaged,” Dr Husna Ahmad, CEO of international development charity, Global One in conversation with Nigel Topping.

Ensuring that these countries are empowered, mobilized and adequately supported is a matter of climate and economic justice.

By 2050, over 570 low-lying coastal cities will face projected sea level rise by at least 0.5 meters. This puts over 800 million people at risk from the impacts of rising seas and storm surges.

Christoph H. Müller and Eduardo Makaroff – members of the Paris-based Gotan Project – have launched a new musical project, with the focus on the Anthropocene.