Climate Change on LinkedIn Issue #5

It has been a really busy two weeks on the climate change front, including on LinkedIn. With so much climate-relevant content to potentially point to, Newsletter Editor Mark Trexler started exploring in a LinkedIn Post of his own the “right role” for the Newsletter. Comments still welcome!

For this Issue of the Newsletter (#5) we’re trying something a bit different, relying less on AI-generated summaries of posts, and more on trying to build coherent topical stories intended to help readers explore the VERY different kinds of climate conversations being held today. We’re hoping these stories, which we’ve kept as compact as possible, provide useful food for thought. We can’t include all the great LinkedIn posts we’ve pulled together - you can find the whole collection here: Issue #5 Candidate Posts as part of the Climate Change on LinkedIn Knowledgebase.

Before we jump in, some recommendations:

• We wanted to point to Rhett Ayers Butler’s ”My Own 10 Top LinkedIn Posts From 2024”. We invite other thought leaders across the climate space to flag your own most important posts of 2024, as Rhett did. It would make for a great collection that we’d certainly include in the Climate Change on LinkedIn Knowledgebase. ?Just tag us in your collection!

• We also thought it worthwhile to take advantage of Abbie Morris’ Rediscovery of Carl Sagan’s Climate Speech From 30 Years Ago, comparing climate change to cold war spending. The video is embedded in her post, and also available on YouTube. It is a remarkable piece of historical video.

• Also before jumping in, take a look at Renee Lertzman’s recommended video on How to Talk About Climate Change This Season. And the New Yorker’s new story on the historic International Court of Justice case, which will arrive at least advisory conclusions about where climate change falls under international law.

POST TOPICS???????????

?As you’ll see we’ve identified 10 or so topics with which to organize this Newsletter’s LinkedIn posts. Could what follows be called a “wall of text,” that is “hard to read?” Sure. What we’re trying to provide is as compact a reader experience as possible. By bolding the topics we’re hoping you can easily zero in on the topics you’re most likely to be interested in. ?At least that’s the plan! ?Let us know whether we succeeded!

Climate Science ?In his post Ed Hawkins Remembers Robert FitzRoy as the Originator of “Weather Forecasts”, notable in that advances in weather forecasting represent one of THE success stories of recent times. In his first post a week ago IPCC Working 1 Co-Chair Robert Vautard Looks Forward to Meetings Intended to Scope Out the IPCC’s AR7 Report. ?As the Newsletter was being finalized, he Reported on the Conclusions of those (Successful) Meetings Toward Scoping Out AR7. We can hardly wait for the next 10,000 pages of IPCC findings in AR7!

As always, Market Mechanisms are popular. MSCI has published yet another Guide to Understanding Carbon Markets incorporating recent COP29 outcomes. Noting that the World Bank had projected a total consolidation of voluntary carbon markets by 2025-30, Hamerkop Climate Solutions points to 65 carbon certification standards being used today (a remarkable number!). Kees van Santen asks “What Does WWF Think About Carbon Credits?”, questioning whether a new report from WWF represents a consensus organizational view or just the view of one faction within WWF. And with the goal of promoting the growth of offset markets Climate Focus Profiles a New Best Practices Report for Developing Carbon Market Projects in the Yucatan. ?You can read a summary of the paper here! But in an alarming development that again suggests how challenging it is to get carbon markets right, Benedict Probst reports on the “The Resignation of Members of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market” over recently approved ICVCM methodologies.

Of course market mechanisms are not just about carbon. The post from Simas Gradeckas flags the existence of more than 60 biodiversity credit schemes (and counting). ?At the same time, however, Sophus zu Ermgassen points to a new paper questioning the right “unit” for biodiversity markets. Hint: it’s a real challenge, which has a key conundrum for biodiversity “credits” all along!! ?Read a summary of the paper here!

Business Risk The World Economic Forum has put out another guide to business climate risk, as reported on by Ada Elman in Companies Not Adapting to Climate Change Face Alarming Financial Consequences. The implications of the report, however, differ substantially from real-world business behavior as profiled next.

Business Climate Action is always big topic of discussion. Lisa Sachs flags Goldman Sachs in “Another Day, Another Climate Alliance Departure.” In a continuation of the same theme, Ken Pucker Notes That Many Companies Are Backsliding on Voluntary Environmental Goals, and goes on the argue that The Theory of Change Based on “More Reporting Leads to Better Disclosure Leads to Change” is Broken. In a post near and dear to the editors’ hearts, Raz Godelnik Suggests That To Change Coca-Cola, Change Its Decision-Making Environment. Seemingly obvious, yet we keep coming back to the same conclusion that incentives matter! Which probably explains Glenn Hurowitz’s Post Discussing the Food Industry’s Push to Reverse Progress in the Amazon.

On a more positive “business action” note is Hans Stegeman’s article on “Tipping Points Investing”, which he suggests seems to be catching on. Hans’ post generated a response from Bill Baue noting that “Tipping Point Investing” sounds a lot like the “Threshold Investing” he was promoting more than a decade ago, albeit without success.

Carbon Accounting ?David Carlin revisits the perennial question of “Who IS Responsible for Climate Change?, noting that there are many ways to think about the question, and flagging the importance of the question for effective climate negotiations and policy-making. Owen Hewlett Addresses “What IS Your Scope 3 Responsibility?”, even as Wesley H. suggests “Flipping Scope 3 Into Product-Specific Carbon Performance Standards, which interestingly is exactly the same argument that Exxon’s CEO made during a recent Net Zero podcast. But does it really make sense to start legislating different product-specific carbon content standards in each country, perhaps millions of such standards in all? ?How long would that take, and would it be effective in moving toward net zero? In his post Lev Gantly points to the Challenge of Corresponding Adjustments, which he suggests are under-estimated and under-appreciated. While Eric Roston Reports on a Paper that “Scientists Say We’re Getting Net Zero Wrong.”

Solutions Technologies always get some attention. ?Including Michael Barnard’s comprehenive look at hydrogen failures in the maritime sector. ?Hannah Ritchie’s video on how to solve climate change is the subject of a Stefan Rahmstorf post, which also serves as an interesting look at what it means to be a climate denialist that deserves to be “blocked” in LinkedIn. Newsletter editor Mark Trexler, for example, frequently characterizes climate change as a “wicked problem.” ?But scientist Michael Mann suggests in one of his books that characterizing climate change as a “wicked problem” is the equivalent of denying climate change. It’s easy to see how canceling “denialists” could quickly amplify the “circular firing squad” when it comes to tackling climate change.

Policy Developments includes Martin Pigeon’s post “Killing the European Green Deal” which critiques the European People's Party (EPP) for its proposed changes to the EU's Green Deal in the areas of carbon capture and stories in the EU’s emissions trading system, and the Habitats and Birds Directive that could compromise protections for large carnivores like wolves and bears. Jan Amrit Poser advocates for the development of “Brown Taxonomies” that would supplement all the work on “green taxonomies” and provide more explicit guidance on what technologies to avoid. Henner Busch discusses the carbon “Lock-In” likely to result from Europe’s hydrogen plans, particularly through "hydrogen-ready" gas power plants that currently rely on fossil gas. Read a summary of the paper here! ?In his post Andreas Rasche clarifies misconceptions regarding what the EU Omnibus bill does with respect to #CRSD #CSDDD and the #EUTaxonomy, while Oscar Soria reports on the Failure of the Plastics Treaty. Harking back to COP29, Joanna Depledge Shares a New Paper Suggesting the New Rules We Need to Make COPs Work. Read a summary of the paper here! ?While Stephane Hallegatte’s Don’t Let Perfect Policy Get In the Way of Getting Policy Done post profiles the results of a new paper on the timing vs. the completeness of policy schemas. Read a summary of the paper here!

Climate Red Alert posts are growing increasingly common, First is the question of whether existing climate models are getting climate change, and particularly climate extremes, right? As flagged in Robert Vautard’s “Are Climate Models Missing What’s Happening at the Extremes?”. A theme also flagged in Kasper Bjorkskov’s “Why Climate Models Are Falling Behind Reality.”

Then comes the question of where we stand today. Including Greg De Temmerman’s “The Heroic Assumptions of the 1.5 Degree Target”, as well as Laurie Schoeman’s “Rising Extremes Rising Insurance Premiums”, and? Laurie Laybourn’s The Rising Insurance Losses of Climate Change.

Then is where we’re headed. Including Nick Spencer’s We’re on a Collision Course for 3 Degrees, joining Sandy Trust’s “A Brilliant New Report - Collision Course” in promoting David Spratt’s new report: Collision Course - 3-Degrees of Warming and Humanity's Future - read the summary here!. ?And then there is the Rhodium Group’s Rhodium Climate Outlook 2024 - Probabilistic Global Emissions and Energy Projections - click for a summary of the report. Which concludes that while we may have dodged the worst climate bullets, the most likely range of outcomes still extends to more than 3.5 degrees C of average global temperature change.

Last but not least is what happens when you take off any rose-colored glasses of climate optimism. Laurie Laybourn’s “The Beginning of a Climate Doom Loop” dives into the seemingly obvious (but not discussed) fact that any kind of rational societal or policy response to climate change will become increasingly difficult (and unlikely) in the face of more and more climate extremes. Which raises the question flagged by Neil Davidson: “Does the Likelihood of Societal Collapse Justify Giving Up?”

New Climate Tools & Resources ?All kinds of new resources are always being developed. Including as described in Mashford Mahute’s 18 Free Sources of Geospatial Climate Data. Then come two posts from Markus Lieppold, including Using AI to Assess Transition Disclosures, as well as Using AI-Based Tools to Make Sense of Sustainability Literatures. Not to be left out is Clement Bourgoin’s New Global Spatial Layers Added for Deforestation and Degradation.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

?We welcome user feedback on this issue of the Climate Change on LinkedIn Newsletter. If you’re not yet a subscriber, sign up here!

Zsolt Lengyeland Dr. Mark Trexler.

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