How Activism Can Win Bigger and Faster with Kumi Naidoo

Kumi Naidoo is a world-renowned activist and climate leader. Before taking on leadership positions at Greenpeace International and Amnesty International, Naidoo was a 15-year-old anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. The boycotts he organized led to him being a target of the Security Police. He fled South Africa and lived in exile in the UK.

As a climate activist, Naidoo has been arrested for scaling oil rigs, has negotiated with heads of state, and rubbed shoulders with the most powerful people at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Now he’s a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, where he’s focusing on how activism can win bigger and faster.

Upcoming Event

Tuesday March 28 | 12:00 p.m.

Elizabeth Kolbert began reporting on the increasingly devastating effects of climate change in the early 2000s — before Al Gore’s breakthrough documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Kolbert’s reporting became the foundation of her book “Field Notes from a Catastrophe,” which sounded the alarm on the causes and effects of global warming. In the two decades since then, the frequency and intensity of climate-induced disasters has only intensified. And yet, Kolbert’s latest book is titled “H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z.” So where does she see cause for hope? What is the world finally doing right? And what work still needs to be done?

Join Climate One co-host Ariana Brocious for a live-streamed conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Elizabeth Kolbert as we unpack the state of the world’s climate and ongoing efforts to mitigate future disaster.

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What We’re Reading This Week: SEC to Require Emissions Disclosures

After more than a decade of deliberation, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized its emissions disclosure rules . Under the agency’s new framework , most companies traded publicly in the United States will be required to report annually on climate risks they face and some of their greenhouse gas emissions.

The disclosure requirements face significant legal scrutiny. At least 10 Republican state attorneys general have sued to block the rules , and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is considering a lawsuit as well. On the other end of the spectrum, climate activists and some Democrats have decried the SEC’s decision to remove the requirement to report indirect emissions, also known as Scope 3 emissions, from their final proposal. For companies in certain industries, such as fossil fuel producers, Scope 3 emissions are the bulk of their total, which is why oil and gas iinterests fiercely opposed the inclusion of Scope 3 reporting.

However, the state of California and the European Union have already passed emissions reporting regulations that include Scope 3 emissions. While the SEC’s rules will apply to far more companies than either the California or EU laws, climate activists are hopeful the three-pronged approach will lead to greater transparency of corporate pollution.

PLUS:

• What is a whale native to the North Pacific doing off New England? Climate change could be the key
• Africatown is still trying to breathe
• The hot new luxury good for the rich: air
• Why Mainers are falling hard for heat pumps

Connecting the Dots

When Jacqueline Patterson , executive director of the The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership , first visited Sandbranch, Texas, she couldn’t believe the lack of investment in the community’s infrastructure. Residents of the unincorporated town formed by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War lacked running water and sanitation services, and the area’s status as a high-risk floodplain had decimated property values.

In Sandbranch and across the country, Patterson and the Chisholm Legacy Project are confronting environmental racism head-on — work that earned her a place among Time’s 2024 Women of the Year . Patterson and Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. joined Climate One last fall to talk through their efforts to counter centuries of climate inequality. Their conversation is available on all major podcast platforms .

Chart of the Week

One More Thing

Have you moved within the United States for climate-related reasons? Tell us about it!

For the chance to have your climate migration story shared on Climate One, give us a call at 650 382-3869. Please keep your voicemail under two minutes and include your name and contact information so we know how to reach you if we decide to feature your story.