Climate 411

How Brazil can develop its rural economy, increase agricultural production and protect forests

By bpietracci / Published: October 9, 2019

Day one panel “How should the rural economy be in the future?” featuring, from left, Carlos Nobre (IEA-USP), André Guimarães (IPAM), Regina Sambuichi (Ipea), and Juliano Assunção (PUC-RIO). Photo by IPC-IG on Flickr .

The recent fires in the Amazon rainforest have raised the question: is it possible to have a new model of development in the region that reconciles forest protection with economic growth?

The pressing threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation along with a growing global demand for agricultural commodities, pose major challenges and opportunities for rural economies.

A group of Brazilian and international scientists, economists, and government officials joined private sector, civil society and multilateral organization representatives in Brasília to discuss how these challenges could be turned into economic and environmental opportunities for the Brazilian rural sector.

The two day workshop, “Business Opportunities for a Sustainable Rural Economy: The Contribution from Forests and Agriculture,” examined different facets of Brazil’s potential in a low-carbon rural economy. Organized by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in partnership with the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) of the Brazilian Ministry of Economy, and the United Nations Development Program – International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), participants concluded that Brazil has an unparalleled comparative advantage to foster a buoyant sustainable rural economy that couples economic and agricultural development with environmental protection.

Posted in Agriculture, Brazil, Carbon Markets, Forest protection / Read 1 Response

Striking for the climate and defending our future

By EDF Blogs / Published: October 3, 2019

(This post was written by Christina Fullmer. It first appeared on Defend Our Future)

Over the course of my professional career, I have observed several protest events. The Global Climate Strike on September 20th marked my first experience as an active, marching, sign-holding protest participant. When I confessed this to one of my colleagues in the NYC office, she rightly asked the question: What took you so long? Good question. Let’s just say that it was an amazing way to cap my fourth week of employment with EDF!The day before the Climate Strike, I had a brief meet and greet with EDF President Fred Krupp in the New York office. His message to me was a distillation of everything I had absorbed during my first few weeks, namely, that what we do is “in service to changing the world.” These words resonated with me as I joined tens of thousands of environmental allies marching toward Foley Square and onward to Battery Park. Bearing witness to the anger, the fear, and the hope expressed by those marching alongside me was stirring. Knowing that EDF works tirelessly to address urgent environmental issues, and that I am now a part of these efforts, is affirming.

Protesting in unity with the world’s youth as they lead the climate crusade for environmental justice, policies that protect our planet, and effective leadership was an honor and was the least that I could do. I can’t wait for the next one!

Posted in Partners for Change / Read 1 Response

Four takeaways on climate change and sea level rise in the latest IPCC report

By Tianyi Sun / Published: October 3, 2019

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has published yet another alarming report about the dangers we face from the climate crisis.

The Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate synthesizes the latest science on how the oceans and frozen parts of the world have changed, and will continue to change, because of global warming.

More than 100 scientists from 36 countries summarized findings from almost 7,000 peer reviewed research studies. The authors addressed over 30,000 comments from expert reviewers and governments in 80 countries.

A major focus of the report is sea level rise, a climate change impact that is especially serious to those who live in coastal regions – which is more than a quarter of the world’s population. Recent advances in science, such as higher quality data, improved physical understanding, and agreements across modeling studies have improved understanding of the threat of sea level rise.

Here are four of the report’s most important takeaways on sea level rise:

Posted in Arctic & Antarctic, Basic Science of Global Warming, Extreme Weather, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News, Oceans, Policy, Science / Read 3 Responses

Three opportunities for the UN’s aviation agency to deliver climate action

By Annie Petsonk / Published: September 25, 2019

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

As International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) 40th General Assembly kicks off this week in Montreal, aviation faces an existential challenge: the need to zero out its climate impact. Greta Thunberg, whose refusal to fly symbolizes the question every child of her generation will face, leads a climate strike on this Friday, that will march right to ICAO’s gates. Will their demands move the delegates representing 193 countries meeting inside?

Here are three opportunities the Assembly can take to back up their climate commitments with real action.

Posted in Aviation / Comments are closed

Study: Consumers willing to pay carbon offsets for air travel

By Guest Author / Published: September 25, 2019

New social science research finds people are willing to put a price on carbon; just don’t ask them to pay taxes

iStock

This post was authored by Rainer Romero-Canyas, Lead Senior Social Scientist for EDF.

Flying shame has gone mainstream—just ask the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. But are travelers who won’t face the wrath of the tabloids for flying willing to chip in to offset the cost of flying on the environment? A new study from the University of British Columbia and EDF suggests they are. It all depends on how it’s labeled and who is viewed as paying for the environmental impact of the flight.

We wanted to see if it was possible to introduce policy instruments designed to price carbon, without triggering an aversion to taxes, a common challenge in the United States. So, we tested two aspects of the fee: one, both how it was labeled (a carbon offset or a carbon tax), and two, if it was important to see who got the bill (the company that imports or processes fossil fuel or the consumers who use their products and services).

In an upcoming issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology, my co-authors and I detail the results of three studies focused primarily on the airline industry, because its emissions are slated to triple in the coming decades, absent policy change, making it one of the fastest sources of carbon pollution worldwide. The good news: consumers are willing to pay more for flying responsibly, just as long as it’s the airlines they’re flying that are stepping up and shouldering that responsibility.

Posted in Aviation, Carbon Markets, Science / Read 2 Responses

The Getting to Zero Coalition: a step further towards decarbonization

By Guest Author / Published: September 23, 2019

Shutterstock

This post was authored by Aoife O’Leary, Natacha Crete and Marie Hubatova from Environmental Defense Fund Europe

Today at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, the youth movement with Greta Thunberg at its helm, called out the world leaders in attendance for a lack of action in the climate emergency. Greta’s impassioned plea again makes clear that the time for action is now. Action from all sectors. In the absence of real transformative action, we have no hope of meeting the temperature goals established by science and enshrined in the Paris agreement.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres convened the climate action summit asking that countries and sectors come forward with scalable action. The summit is supposed to clarify the “how” in our path to avoiding catastrophic climate change. These provide the necessary catalyst for countries to take more ambitious commitments at the international climate negotiations in Glasgow in 2020. While much of what was announced today at the summit was pretty underwhelming, major players in the shipping sector have made significant effort to answer Guterres’ call.

Posted in International, Paris Agreement, United Nations / Comments are closed

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