Ahead of the Curve Xpress: September Recap

From the Africa Climate Summit through to the UN General Assembly and Climate Week in New York, September marked an important moment for leaders to step up as the final sprint towards COP28 begins.

Despite many Heads of State being absent in New York, courageous leadership was everywhere – from youth activists to business leaders, from philanthropists to campaigners, from nature experts to finance experts – all united in their dedication to driving transformative systems change.

Here is the second edition of the Ahead of The Curve Xpress newsletter!

Exponential Spotlight: The IEA's New Net Zero Roadmap

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published an update to its landmark Net Zero Roadmap, presenting a global pathway to keep the 1.5C goal within reach. In the report, the IEA spotlights exponential progress in clean energy technologies as a growing reason for optimism, and highlights the possibility of a fast energy transition and the economic opportunity of a 1.5C aligned economy. The report outlines four things we need to do by 2030 to make this possible: triple renewable capacity, double efficiency, increase electrification with heat pumps and EVs, and cut methane emissions 75%.

Exponential Moment: Transforming Nature, Finance and Energy

In response to the Clarion Call letter sent to G20 Heads of State earlier this month, leaders from across the climate community gathered during Climate Week NYC to discuss the courageous leadership and exponential transformations required across nature, finance and energy systems in response to the Global Stocktake.

These discussions saw the launch of the Fossil to Clean campaign by the We Mean Business Coalition – a new global campaign that calls on businesses and governments to move decisively to phase out fossil fuels and ramp up clean energy solutions.

Oliver B?te, CEO of Allianz, also highlighted the need for courageous leadership to deliver the transition at the UN Secretary General's Climate Ambition Summit.

"Not working on the transformation is foolish... We need from our political leaders more courage and less fear; more pragmatism and less bureaucracy; more celebrations of progress and less demonisation of markets." – Oliver B?te, CEO of Allianz

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Sir Richard Branson’s Optimistic Look at the Future

Sir Richard Branson published a blog on the renewables revolution, highlighting recent research from RMI , Systems Change Lab and the EEIST Project on the rapid transformations underway. To achieve the right outcome, Sir Branson calls for all of us to embrace sustainable exponential change over the next few critical years. The exponential mindset is catching.

“The utopian world is within our grasp and together we can make it a reality. The sooner we get there, the better for all humanity.” – Sir Richard Branson

The Story of The Future

Artist and author Oliver Jeffers unveiled an art piece that speaks to the power of storytelling in shaping our future, and points to the solutions that we already have at our fingertips – and that are already being deployed at an exponential pace.

“The story of our future is unwritten, and we, everyone of us, will be its authors. We must choose our plot well.” – Oliver Jeffers

A New Era of African Climate Leadership

Nature took centre stage at the Africa Climate Summit in early September, where African leaders came together in Nairobi and laid out the basis for a common position to address the climate crisis. As we look towards COP28, Wanjira Mathai calls on governments to step up to transform food systems and our relationship to nature, and put this at the heart of the response to the Global Stocktake.

"We have the solutions and the opportunity to deliver transformational change. African leadership will, and must be, at the heart of addressing this challenge." – Wanjira Mathai, Managing Director for Africa and Global Partnerships at WRI

A Race Between Two Exponential Curves

Christiana Figueres outlines the ‘double climate paradox’ we are in as the exponential negative impacts of climate change are met with an exponential increase in climate technologies. Which curve wins is up to us.

In case you missed it...

The Accelerating Transition to EVs

Driven by falling battery costs, EVs are set to hit purchase price parity with fossil-fuelled cars in all major markets over the next four years, and could account for two thirds of global car sales by 2030. New research by RMI , Systems Change Lab and the EEIST Project signals the end of the internal combustion engine.

That’s it for our September wrap up! As all eyes turn to COP28 in Dubai, we have to double down and triple up to continue riding this wave of exponential change.

Change happens faster than we think.