The Climate of Business #29: "Now or Never" yet again.

This week we inevitably need to speak about the IPCC report that came out some days ago. The comments are sadly again revolving around the apocalyptic scenario where we continue business as usual, while the planet keeps on reducing its capacity to recover, and therefore provide for us, for our 1.7 Earths consumption yearly.

This provoked me to dive this week into the concept of regenerative economy, one which offers a viable setup for all - it is aligned with the capitalistic model, yet accounts for the ecosystem services, or natural capital.

Climate Change Reality

Climate change: IPCC scientists say it's 'now or never' to limit warming (BBC )

Who is responsible for climate breakdown? And who pays for it? (Al Jazeera )

Even The currents in the ocean's depths can't escape the effects of climate change (Science Alert )

Scientists risk arrest to sound climate alarm (France 24 )

Meet 5 women documenting the effects of climate change around the world (NPR )

Climate disasters rising faster in MENA than any other region (Al Jazeera )

Will skiing survive? Resorts struggle through a winter of climate and housing woes (NPR )

Fires then floods: Risk of Deadly Climate Combination Rises (The New York Times )

Tropical forests have big climate benefits beyond carbon storage (Nature )

Australian researchers claim ‘giant leap’ in technology to produce affordable renewable hydrogen (Guardian )

Business Climate Reality

Climate can wait: French election campaign ignores ‘humanity’s greatest challenge’ (France 24 )

Climate research funded by fossil fuel profits discredits universities and hurts the planet (LA Times )

UN report on climate crisis confirms the world already has solutions -- but politics are getting in the way (CNN )

Crypto effort to end useless carbon offsets is backfiring (Bloomberg )

Greenwashing? UN appoints panel to probe firms on climate efforts (Aljazeera )

Inside Just Stop Oil, the youth climate group blocking UK refineries (Guardian )

How high energy prices could help both the climate and the U.S. (The Wall Street Journal )

How are we still subsidising the negative impacts on climate change? (The Hill )

Swiss Re cuts fossil fuel cover for oil, gas to protect climate (Reuters )

The world is stuck between gas prices and climate change (CNN )

Hamburg to get climate-neutral data centres by 2027 (Hamburg News )

Greenpeace criticises Suncor's decision to exit wind and solar energy business (Canadian National Observer )

Reality Check

This week we talk about regenerative economy.

This concept is perfectly aligned with the capitalist perspective which I have found fascinating as the transition we need to go through would require us to account for the totality of our resources, yet, knowing the resistance today for a full revamp of the economic model, this one offers comfort for all.

Regenerative economics?is an?economic system?that works to regenerate?capital assets.

A capital asset is an asset that provides goods and/or services that are required for or contribute to the?well-being of our society. In traditional?economic theory, one can either “regenerate” one's capital assets or consume them until the asset cannot produce a viable stream of goods and/or services anymore. Regenerative economics takes into account and gives hard economic value to first capital assets we ever had access to the?Earth?and the?Sun.

8 principles of regenerative economics

• Holistic approach to assessing the value of the ecosystem - this concept explains how people are not separated from nature any damage of one part of the ecosystem will harm the rest
• Wealth beyond money - wealth or capital, including social, cultural, living, and experiential
• Qualities of innovation and adaptability - The most “fit” is the one that fits best i.e., the one that is most adaptable to a changing environment. (Darwin)
• Empowered participation - In an interdependent system, fitness comes from contributing in some way to the health and wealth of the whole.?
• Community and Place - in the same way how when we plant monocultures for kilometres, the whole ecosystem dies out, so does our wealth depend on the diversity we have created.
• Edge Effect Abundance -?Creativity and abundance flourish synergistically at the “edges” of systems, where the bonds holding the dominant pattern in place are weakest.
• Robust Circulatory Flow -?Just as human health depends on the robust circulation of oxygen, nutrients, etc., so too does economic health depend on robust circulatory flows of money, information, resources, and goods and services to support exchange, flush toxins, and nourish every cell at every level of our human networks.?
• Balance - Being in balance is actually essential to systemic economic health.?

Carbon Price

Still battling to recover.