Discover this week's top nature and climate stories
- This round-up contains some of the key nature and climate news from the past week.
- Top stories: Scientists warn on planet’s carbon budget for 1.5°C; Big rise in intensity of weather events, NASA says; Why climate change could affect the taste of gin.
1. Scientists warn on planet’s carbon budget for 1.5°C
The 1.5°C target was agreed by almost 200 countries in 2015, with the aim of avoiding some of the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
But the Indicators of Global Climate Change study, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, shows unprecedented levels and rates of warming, the researchers say.
2. Big rise in intensity of weather events: Nasa study
The figures from the space agency’s satellite tracking environmental changes have reached twice that of the 2003-2020 average, the Guardian reports.
While the data is not peer-reviewed and the researchers say they would need another 10 years to confirm a trend, they pointed to the climate crisis as the most likely cause.
Many more experts, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, predict that adverse impacts of the climate crisis will continue to intensify.
3. News in brief: Other top nature and climate stories this week
As sea ice decreases, ships are entering previously inaccessible regions and damaging seafloor marine life when they drop anchors, a new report says. Anchoring impacts are understudied, the researchers say, making it important to recognize and mitigate its effects.
How is the World Economic Forum fighting the climate crisis?
The Global Risks Report 2023 ranked failure to mitigate climate change as one of the most severe threats in the next two years, while climate- and nature- related risks lead the rankings by severity over the long term.
The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate is a multistakeholder platform that seeks to safeguard our global commons and drive systems transformation. It is accelerating action on climate change towards a net-zero, nature-positive future.
Learn more about our impact:
- Scaling up green technologies: Through a partnership with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, and over 65 global businesses, the First Movers Coalition has committed $12 billion in purchase commitments for green technologies to decarbonize the cement and concrete industry.
- 1 trillion trees: Over 90 global companies have committed to conserve, restore and grow more than 8 billion trees in 65 countries through the 1t.org initiative – which aims to achieve 1 trillion trees by 2030.
- Sustainable food production: Our Food Action Alliance is engaging 40 partners who are working on 29 flagship initiatives to provide healthy, nutritious, and safe foods in ways that safeguard our planet. In Vietnam, it supported the upskilling of 2.2 million farmers and aims to provide 20 million farmers with the skills to learn and adapt to new agricultural standards.
- Eliminating plastic pollution: Our Global Plastic Action Partnership is bringing together governments, businesses and civil society to shape a more sustainable world through the eradication of plastic pollution. In Ghana, more than 2,000 waste pickers are making an impact cleaning up beaches, drains and other sites.
- Protecting the ocean: Our 2030 Water Resources Group has facilitated almost $1 billion to finance water-related programmes, growing into a network of more than 1,000 partners and operating in 14 countries/states.
- Circular economy: Our SCALE 360 initiative is reducing the environmental impacts of value chains within the fashion, food, plastics and electronics industries, positively impacting over 100,000 people in 60 circular economy interventions globally.
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Increasing rates of textile-to-textile recycling – in which discarded textiles are turned into new fibres to be used as the basis for new fabrics – in the European Union to 10% could make 440,000 tonnes of carbon savings a year and conserve 8.8 billion cubic metres of water, the bloc says.
4. More on the nature and climate crisis from Forum Stories
Climate finance often focuses more on mitigation than adaptation – in 2022, finance for mitigation reached $1.2 trillion globally, while only $68 billion went to adaptation. But in climate-vulnerable developing nations adaptation finance can prove vital, particularly when high capital costs delay mitigation efforts. Diverse strategies have successfully reduced the risks associated with adaptation finance; by replicating these, adaptation finance can be scaled up.
Climate change, land degradation, deforestation and unsustainable land use cause some forests to emit more carbon than they absorb. Increasing nature restoration and conservation efforts can reverse this global trend and lead to a “positive tipping point” for ecosystem restoration and biodiversity.
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