Climate Protection is picking up speed - is it?

The message is clear and it’s a good one, too: Politicians are raising the bar on climate protection and industry must arm itself. The European Parliament wants the EU climate target for 2030 to be tightened even more drastically than previously considered - from the current 40 percent to 60 percent.

And while I applaud this decision I wonder: Does it really have to come down to politics to drive change? Is the business world really not able to do it out of their own free will? 

Bold question you may think, but then I always emphasize that we can only combat the climate crisis together. Climate and economy are not enemies - on the contrary - they need each other. And politics is a key driver in this scenario. So I am obviously welcoming any decision being made in favor of a more actionable climate strategy.

And there is definitely movement in the climate conversation. California wants to stop selling burners from 2035, China wants to be climate-neutral "before 2060” and environmentalists speak of a "breakthrough in international climate diplomacy".

The United States left the Paris Agreement, the United States will re-enter the Paris Agreement

When it comes to climate issues, there has been an undeniable wave of uncertainty hanging over the US election. And that uncertainty experienced its first peak on November 4, when the US officially excited the international climate accord. It was the first country to ever do so. The days after though brought back a silver lining as it became clearer that there would be a new administration under Joe Biden who has clearly stated that he would re-enter the Paris agreement only 77 days after the US exited the agreement. We need a strong international community working jointly on reaching our climate targets and with the US not pulling the strings, it would have been a mission impossible. Now, we are back on track.  

The Impact of the EU tightening the Climate Target

The EU Commission had recently also spoken out in favor of reducing climate-damaging emissions by 55 percent compared to 1990. By 2050, the EU should be greenhouse gas neutral. The European heads of state and government have not yet taken a position on the climate target for 2030. It is the task of the German government during its EU presidency until December to ensure that this is achieved.

According to a special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees would have much less serious consequences. For example, a rise of two degrees would probably affect ten million more people from sea-level rise, the probability of extreme weather events would increase and significantly more adaptation to climate change would be necessary. (Spiegel Online)

Experts have doubts as to whether this target can still be achieved. According to the World Weather Organization, the global average temperature might already rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels in one of the coming years.

But what does this mean? Should we just stop and give up? I don’t think so!

One crisis spotlights another crisis

Many doubted that climate change would remain a relevant topic when the Coronavirus hit Europe and changed our lives very abruptly very drastically. But here we are, facing a second wave of restrictions due to the virus but vividly discussing the climate crisis and, what’s even more important, taking climate action more and more. 

Let me just name a few:

Almost 60,000 people support the petition of oat drink producer Oatly, which demands CO2 labelling of food and the petition made it to a government hearing.Yes, Oatly had controversial press due to one of its investors - however, the petition has already been set in place and raised public awareness.

Nestle goes a step further and wishes for a 'Nutri Score' for the environment, i.e. a kind of environmental traffic light that also takes into account aspects such as animal farming, water consumption or social aspects.

Amazon is launching a new environmental program called Climate Pledge Friendly that will label certain products that meet one of 19 certifications for sustainability. The goal is to help climate-conscious consumers make a better decision about whether to buy one product over another by letting them know when a brand has made an effort to reduce its carbon footprint. Amazon says more than 25,000 products should now display the program’s label.

Morgan Stanley Announces Commitment to Reach Net-Zero Financed Emissions by 2050 which means: They do not want to have any investments without net-zero emissions anymore. They aim to become the first major U.S. bank to publicly disclose how much its loans and investments contribute to climate change, the latest sign that Wall Street giants are beginning to reckon with their role in heating the planet.

I already spoke about BlackRock’s announcement at the beginning of the year to back out of climate harming deals. But there is a lot more going on in the financial sector. Citi CEO urges banks to walk away from deals that are bad for the climate. Citi being one of the world's biggest backers of fossil fuels, they acknowledge the fact they need to look after reducing carbon footprints within their portfolio, but they also clearly state they want to work hand in hand with the fossil fuel industry. At the same time, they aim to invest more in innovative companies. Deutsche Bank also joined the ranks and said it would no longer fund oil sand or new energy projects in the Arctic region. Deutsche Bank bank also said it would end all fracking projects in countries with short water supply, and halt global business activities in coal mining by 2025.

Here we are, in the fourth quarter of this very unusual year and there has never been more climate action - at least not that I can remember. And personally I think all activities are deeply connected to how the Coronavirus crisis has affected our lives. More drastically in a very  short amount of time but it has shown us how fragile our systems are. 

Maybe we needed this short-term crisis to wake us up from our comfortable beauty sleep and make us aware of what’s really important: Our Health and the health of our planet. And the latter is definitely having health issues we need to deal with. 

Coming back to my initial thought: Is climate action picking up speed? Yes, I’d say so. Now, we need to make sure to follow our own promises and make all these things happen.