The challenges and opportunities of tackling climate change
Our Under 2°C: mission possible report shows how investment in low and zero carbon innovations is already outcompeting carbon-intensive technologies.
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As delegates from all over the world prepare for the 2018 climate change conference in Poland, we take a look at the challenges as well as the opportunities for governments, businesses and people. In this podcast, we talk to Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.
In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land management, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities. Global manmade emissions of carbon dioxide must be cut by 45% by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.
“The IPCC report concluded that it is technically feasible. We can do this by 2050. We’ve now had just over a quarter of a century’s experience of decarbonisation – going back to the UN climate convention of 1992. In that time, all of the G7 economies have grown their economies while shrinking their carbon footprint,” says Richard Black.
The United Nations’ COP24 climate conference in December will involve much ‘heavy lifting’ to convert the principles of the Paris Agreement into action. Almost every nation in the world pledged in Paris, 2015, to play its part in preventing climate change exceeding the pre-industrial average by more than 2°C. With the IPCC now calling for a 1.5°C limit, the scale and speed of action have increased dramatically.
Every industry has its part to play. This interview discusses a new report, ‘Under 2°C: mission possible’, that reviews low and zero carbon innovations already outcompeting carbon-intensive technologies. It identifies new products, services and thinking that show promise for the near future.
Investors are supporting the climate agenda, channelling investment into companies, buildings and infrastructure that will be fit for a zero carbon future, and physically resilient to the impacts of climate change.
This interview discusses the report’s conclusion: that it is technically possible to achieve the Paris Agreement, and that doing so will be good for economies, business and society, globally.
Read the Mission Possible report
Download and listen to the interview: https://we.tl/t-68CzEoFo3W