The Future of Climate Change: 5 Highlights in November 2021

“The Future of Climate Change” is a monthly series: we choose 5 beautiful things that shaped the future of climate action and ecosystem protection in the past month.

If it makes the world a better place, we want to talk about it.

News on halting biodiversity loss, reducing carbon footprints, becoming carbon neutral, cleantech innovations, climate change solutions, and everything in between. 🌿

Plus! When you start looking, you’ll notice so much good happening. That’s why we had to include a Biodiversity & Sustainability bonus at the end!

Let’s get started!

Google finally bans ads with false claims about climate change

At the start of October, Google announced its policy change, which will be much harsher on fake information about climate change.

This applies to publishers, advertisers, and YouTube creators. None of them will be able to make money from content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change”.

Google’s plan is to enforce the policy with human moderation and algorithmic detection.

“In recent years, we've heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change. Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content. And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.” is Google’s official statement.

Hopefully, this will bring a future with more real information about very real and rapid climate change.

UK firms will have to disclose climate impact: is this a future for all?

Experts are saying the UK is not on track to reach its climate targets and there’s now a new plan to stop companies greenwashing.

The new rules mean some companies will have to start being very clear on what their sustainability actions are and how they contribute to halting climate change.

The new Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) mean:

• an investment product will now have to set out the environmental impact of the activities it finances
• a company's sustainability claims will have to be justified
• their net zero transition plans must be properly set out

This will hopefully lead to a much greener future. Will other companies and countries follow?

New Zealand quadruples climate aid funding for poor countries

The New Zealand government announced it will quadruple the amount of money going to poor countries for climate aid in the next four years.

It’s a significant change that will hopefully bring about a lot of positive change in the environment.

“The investment will enable New Zealand to support clean energy projects in developing countries, ensure buildings are able to withstand more damaging storms, crops are resilient to droughts, floods and new pests, and communities are protected from sea level rise and storm surges,” said the Prime Minister.

To a greener future for everyone!

Language used to describe climate change is becoming more and more urgent

It seems like people are waking up. How we describe climate change is becoming more urgent.

The Oxford English Dictionary found that between 2018 and 2020, the use of ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate emergency’ increased dramatically.

An interesting fact: the term “climate change” was first used in 1854 in a US magazine article that questioned whether human actions could alter the climate.

And the rest is history as it’s not a question anymore. It’s a fact.

Largest ever private funding to protect biodiversity

5 billion dollars is the sum pledged by 9 foundations to protect biodiversity.

The goal is to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030.

How?

• Create and expand conserved and protected spaces
• Draw on the leadership and management skills of Indigenous people on the ground

"The world's biodiversity is concentrated overwhelmingly in areas stewarded by Indigenous people in local communities, so supporting them directly has to be a central component of this funding," said one of the CEOs involved.

Let’s hope their plan works and 30% of the planet is really protected by 2030.

List of Biodiversity News

• The President of China announced a huge biodiversity fund to help developing nations protect nature.
• Blue whales are returning to Spain after 40 years.
• The oldest of the world's last two northern white rhinos have retired from a breeding program.‍
• Underwater gardens help boost coral diversity and offer a possible solution to restore climate-damaged reefs.
• Two extreme wins for biodiversity: the Australian bandicoot was brought back from the brink of extinction and the Spanish sheep was saved from extinction.‍
• Large herbivores can prevent and mitigate wildfires, a new study from Germany suggests.‍
• Cape Verde sea turtle population is booming, which means conservation efforts have really worked.

List of Sustainability News

• African Parks secure 100M dollars for conservation in Africa.
• Renewables made up 92% of new generating capacity in the US in the first half of 2021.‍
• Countries in debt will finally get help addressing climate risks.‍
• Amsterdam, Netherlands plans to be 50% plant based by 2030.‍
• Spain and France ban plastic packaging on fruit and vegetables.
• All of the UK’s electricity will come from clean sources by 2035.‍
• Three cities in England will be connected by a 50 million tree forest.
• Study confirms hedges reduce pollution at breathing height in shallow street canyons.‍
• Carbon labels for food and drink products are trialed in the UK.
• AI is now being used to predict how much sea ice will shrink.

Author note about the “Future of Climate Change” series: the climate crisis has become an inevitable part of our everyday lives, making it easy to get lost in Doomsday thoughts.

In reality, attempts to halt climate change are happening all the time. The key is to notice them. That's what this series is about. ✨ Will you come back next month to read the new one?

Oh also, did you see the 5 climate change highlights from October?

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