The U.S. Has Exited the Paris Agreement. Does it Matter?
The last time there was a major climate treaty, the United States stood on the sidelines. This time, stakes may be higher, but the energy transition (and global cooperation at large) will continue. “When America sneezes, the world catches a cold.” The
Leveraging the Ocean’s Carbon Removal Potential
To meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), greenhouse gas emissions must reach net-zero by mid-century. Achieving this will not only require reducing existing emissions, but also removing carbon dioxide already in the
Why Climate Neutrality Needs Circularity
“How we make and use products and how we produce food generates almost half of the emissions in our current economic system because the production of goods and infrastructure generates emissions all along value chains,” said Mayor Minna Arve of Turku,
Accelerating the Race to Zero Carbon: Multiple Paths Leading to the Same Destination
One of the toughest parts of fulfilling the Paris Agreement goals is understanding the path to success. What does it take to muster the political will and support to make an ambitious commitment? How can all levels of government move
The Profitable Equation of Carbon Removal
For more than 30 years, since the UN’s 1988 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world has attempted policy solutions to combat climate change, mostly failing. Almost a decade after the IPCC was created, the Kyoto Protocol was signed as a
Is the World on Track to Cut Food Loss and Waste in Half by 2030?
In 2015, all the member countries of the United Nations unanimously committed to Agenda 2030, including Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which calls for the world to halve food loss and food waste by 2030. Making significant reductions in food loss
Climate Strategies in Banking: How the World’s Largest Banks Address Climate Change
Retail banks are exposed to many climate-related risks through the diverse range of sectors they finance to generate profit. Despite alarming evidence of climate risks increasingly having a negative effect on companies, many global banks continue to finance carbon-intensive activities
Climate Change & Rising Sea Levels are Claiming Their First Victims: Islands
2019 is on track to be the hottest year ever recorded. Heatwaves in Europe saw the mercury peak past 45℃ this summer, while major fires ravaged the United States, Russia, and Canada. In Australia droughts and severe weather events worsened.
Planetary Prosperity Means Zero Carbon
Mother Nature seems to be in full revolt. A stone's throw from the city of Oakland, where Global Footprint Network is based, the seasonal Diablo winds recently reached record intensity, fanning the worst fires that the famous wine-producing region of
U.S. Action on Climate Change Will Continue
President Donald Trump’s announcement that he wants to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement was a mistake of historic proportions, not only because such a move is the antithesis of Sustainable Development Goal 13 — to “take urgent
The Real Impact of US Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord
Impakter Editorial Board President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement is likely to have two major consequences. The first is environmental, the other political. Starting with environmental impact. It will be bad for the planet, but it will be bad primarily
Food Systems: at the Heart of Sustainable Development
Food is fundamental to human development, brings joy, and unites families. Food systems have driven our transformation as a species from the time we roamed as hunter-gatherers some 10,000 years ago to the Green Revolution and the broad expansion of