World leaders are gathering for COP27. Experts say these are the challenges and opportunities.

Welcome to The Green Era, a new biweekly newsletter breaking down the trends in sustainability, the major developments happening in the space and the skills you need to break into the industry.

The world is coming off a summer rife with hurricanes, record-breaking flooding, surging global gas prices and a food shortage because of the war in Ukraine. Winter is unlikely to give us a respite as Europe contends with a natural gas shortage during the coldest months.

Not everything is doom and gloom, however. Electric vehicles sales are taking off at a rapid clip, spurred by higher fuel prices, and the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States is putting money behind investments in renewable energy and green technologies.?

It is with that backdrop that world leaders will convene in Egypt starting on Nov. 6 for a two week summit at the 27th United Nations Climate Conference, also known as COP27.

The last major initiative reached by all countries is the Paris Agreement, which was signed at the 2015 conference and was supposed to keep global warming well below two degrees Celsius. A recent United Nations report shows the world is set to increase temperatures by 2.1 to 2.9 degrees.?

As government officials, company executives and climate activists meet to discuss the future, what will sustainability experts be watching for?

We spoke with several honorees from LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the Green Economy list to get their take on the biggest climate challenges facing leaders at COP27, the role businesses play in reducing emissions and advice for how to break into the sustainability field.

What are the biggest challenges that leaders need to address at COP27?

I think one of the biggest challenges is making sure that the developing countries feel confident and have some trust that they will be receiving sufficient support. In the face of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, developing countries are facing constraints and the impacts of food prices and energy prices increases. They are seeing much higher death levels. That’s going to be one of the biggest challenges: How will the international community generate trust from the developing countries and mobilize support to them?

How are geopolitical issues impacting the goals that can realistically be reached at COP27?

They are influencing skepticism from many countries, including developing countries, because of the war in Ukraine and its impact, in particular, on Europe. We are seeing the countries are making some additional investments in fossil fuels and this creates skepticism and to be honest it incentivizes or at least creates an enabling environment for further fossil fuel investments in developing countries. It’s really important that Europe and the U.S. continue to find ways to build confidence that these are short-term, interim measures and are necessary because of the unprecedented war in Ukraine, but it does not mean a deviation from the broader commitment and goals.

Is money flowing to the right places and institutions? What needs to change if not?

There is money flowing to the right places and a lot more needs to be done there. That’s what needs to be the focus: How do we reach the most vulnerable? What are the mechanisms that work? We need to get the domestic and private sector involved and that is quite critical. Looking at the role of government, it’s about standards. There is a major gap where the geological agencies in countries are fully equipped to provide climate information to the citizens so they can be better prepared. So looking at how does one make use of new technologies to make sure everyone who needs the information has it so they can make decisions.

???See more of Mafalda Duarte's content

What’s your advice for professionals who want to find a role in the sustainability space?

People assume that the train has left the station and if they’re not a sustainability person that it’s too late and there’s too much information to understand. The space is still nascent. What’s most valuable is that every skill set in every business is applicable in sustainability, whether someone is in marketing, security, compliance or legal. Because it is still in its nascency, companies are exploring what they need in this capacity. You have to be open to joining a space that is moving and evolving very quickly.

What concrete actions do you hope to see coming out of COP27?

You’re going to get a lot of answers around carbon. Enough people are focusing on carbon. I want to see more targets and accountability around biodiversity in nature. One of the things we think is really not getting attention is ecosystem destruction. What happens if we lose the oceans or the bees? It’s shortsighted to look at it through the metric of carbon because if we lose nature, we never get it back. We have to be much more centric on nature commitments, especially from companies. It is absolutely necessary to hear more companies recognizing the role of nature in their overall business practices and few have made commitments around that. The highest priority is goal setting around mitigation of biodiversity loss and accountability for how people are going to achieve those goals.

What do you see the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act being?

When something monumental happens, you don’t realize it until 20 years later when you look back. This will be one of those catalysts, not just in climate but in economic history. Such a significant piece of legislation brings a lot of hope for how other countries can emulate it and that industrialized countries are taking responsibility and doing the work. The key to solving climate change is to not rely on climate activists. We need to incentivize real people to do the right thing and with the IRA, there are so many long-term benefits from an economic perspective and economic benefits that also come with energy security and energy stability.?

What will it take for the investment industry to adopt more sustainable standards? What's currently holding it back?

What’s holding it back is a lack of data transparency. The investment industry needs a uniform way of understanding what’s informing each portfolio. If that was possible, it would be like having the list of ingredients and health information on our foods. That does drive standardization of products and we would need to define what it means to be a climate product.

?? See more of Jay Lipman's content

What concrete actions do you hope to see coming out of COP27?

There are three very actionable solutions that we have been working with a number of investors and public sector actors on. First is we want to see public finance actors increase their overall amount of climate finance and see them work to deploy 50% of those funds toward adaptation and resilience.

Second is for the private sector to commit to integrating physical climate risks into investment decisions and innovate mechanisms for finance adaptation and resilience to close the financing gap. Third is the insurance sector mobilizing and increasing its own implementation and projects. They play a role in pricing and spreading risk but have also been very successful at reducing risk like when seatbelt laws were enacted, the insurance industry helped achieve that wide-spread adoption.

What role do banks play in making some of those actions a reality??

If 2021 was the year of alignment to net zero and getting the financial sector to make alignment commitments, 2022 is now all about deployment. How will we structure new investment vehicles and new partnerships between the public and private sectors? That will allow financing to flow into technologies and communities that need it the most.

We hear a lot about ESG investments. How much of that is real and what portion is paying lip service?

My personal take is that just like in any other domain, there are authentic companies pursuing ESG for competitive value and because it makes good business sense and investors that are finding ways to uncover which of those companies are doing it in such a way that they become a better investment. That part of this broader market is well placed for growth and is making a huge difference. Unfortunately, there are other parts of the market that have been trying to use this as somewhat of a greenwashing or easy way to market a fund to investors. I am encouraged that on both sides of the ocean we are seeing regulators cracking down on that and even investors themselves are becoming more savvy buyers.

?? See more of Veronica Chau's content

What’s your advice for professionals who want to find a role in the sustainability space?

To start with a startup. The best learning pressure pot is working at a startup because a startup by definition has to grow and it has to grow very fast. If you're working in climate tech or clean tech, you’re going to get the education that you might at one of the top schools offering executive courses and retooling. Join a startup whose mission you view as one of your own and help them grow.

What is most important in developing a more sustainable business model?

Every business should have a goal of reaching net-zero or net-negative emissions as soon as they possibly can. For some that will be this year, for others it’ll be 2030. The first actionable steps are thinking through where does the company waste, where is the bulk of the carbon built into the business and what can be done today to reduce those numbers. I see some large companies being leaders and being open about where they are and where they are going. They are sharing their own journey and publishing how they are taking these steps so that other companies can learn from their pitfalls.

What’s your strategy for engaging with employees about your sustainability objectives?

The first is listening. It’s easy as the CEO to come up with a goal, but how do you operationalize that? It leaves the fruits of operationalization to shareholders but leaves the pain to the workers. One thing is to not only come up with those goals at senior leadership level but to listen to people and involve them with goal setting in the beginning, so you have bottom up communication.

?? See more of Garry Cooper's content

What’s your advice for professionals who want to transition/find a role in the sustainability space?

They can engage with their communities. Much of the work is local and there are opportunities to see how they can contribute there if they are looking to shift. It’s about getting familiar with what is happening in this space and where they want to engage in. Is it in the community or at a company on the innovation side?

What concrete actions do you hope to see coming out of COP27?

The way that we’ve thought about the implementation work at Google is starting with how we lead in our own operations and for us that is being net zero by 2030. We look at how we can support our partners and this where we see the role of technology in allowing others to also take action. One area we’re focused on is cities. We’ve built a tool that gives cities data insights and where they can take action. And it’s about individuals. We’ve seen a huge amount of interest from people so we look at how we can support them in taking individual action.

How can or should companies and governments be working together?

One of the reasons that we’ve focused on cities is because they are on the frontlines of climate change. They don’t have the resources at their disposal to take action. We wanted to give them the data they needed, such as insights around transportation emissions and the carbon footprint of our cities. We started hearing more about air quality and urban heat islands, so we looked at where more trees could be planted. This is where I've seen partnerships be so critical. That’s the name of the game in this moment. What are the roadblocks, and how do we provide helpful data and information that enables action by policymakers?

?? See more of Kate Brandt's content