REPORTS

UN Emissions Gap Report 2019

The Emissions Gap Report 2019 shows that we are on the brink of missing the 1.5°C target and condemning humanity to a future of serious climate change impacts. Countries cannot wait until they submit their updated Paris pledges in one year’s time to act. They need to do much more, starting now. Cities, regions, businesses and individuals must all play their part too.
We simply cannot afford inaction. For ourselves, for our countries, for our future.
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Do you know what your country’s commitments are? Do you know if they’re sufficient? Do you know which actions are the biggest opportunities for your country to take?

Read the report, be informed, act now.

UKCCC Net Zero Report 2019

A net-zero GHG target for 2050 will deliver on the commitment that the UK made by signing the Paris Agreement. It is achievable with known technologies, alongside improvements in people’s lives, and within the expected economic cost that Parliament accepted when it legislated the existing 2050 target for an 80% reduction from 1990.

However, this is only possible if clear, stable and well-designed policies to reduce emissions further are introduced across the economy without delay. Current policy is insufficient for even the existing targets.

IPCC Special Report Global Warming of 1.5C

An IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.

Sell the Sizzle - The New Climate Message

In the 1940s a supersalesman named Elmer Wheeler made what TIME magazine called ‘a handsome living’ advising U.S. businesses: “Don’t sell the sausage – sell the sizzle!” Elmer knew that the big secret to successful selling is that you don’t advertise the sausage itself – because it’s the desirable sounds and smells which get the juices flowing and the people hungry. For years we’ve tried to ‘sell’ climate change, but a lot of people aren’t buying. Despite a strange recent resurgence in denial, the science is unequivocal. So climate change is no longer a scientist’s problem - it’s now a salesman’s problem, and we can all learn a thing or two about selling from Elmer. For all of us desperately promoting action, finding ingenious ways to communicate climate change or just banging our heads against the hard brick wall of climate denial – we need to find the sizzle.

​The seven Climate Visuals principles

This report summarises the research underpinning the Climate Visuals website and presents the key findings so that practitioners can take an evidence-based approach to visual communication. The imagery used to communicate climate change can and should be more diverse than polar bears and melting ice. Climate Visuals takes the first steps towards helping communicators tell a better visual story about climate change.

WEF Global Risks Report 2019

The Global Risks Report 2019 is published against a backdrop of worrying geopolitical and geo-economic tensions. If unresolved, these tensions will hinder the world’s ability to deal with a growing range of collective challenges, from the mounting evidence of environmental degradation to the increasing disruptions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
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The report presents the results of our latest Global Risks Perception Survey, in which nearly 1,000 decision-makers from the public sector, private sector, academia and civil society assess the risks facing the world. Nine out of 10 respondents expect worsening economic and political confrontations between major powers this year. Over a ten-year horizon, extreme weather and climate-change policy failures are seen as the gravest threats.

WBG Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience

Our climate is already changing, and the impact will be felt hardest by millions of poor and vulnerable people in the world. So, while we invest in a low carbon future, we must invest in resilient societies at the same time. Simply put, adaptation and resilience are two sides of the same coin. At the World Bank, we are supporting countries to invest in and build a low-carbon, climate-resilient future so that they are better prepared to deal with current and future climate impacts. These impacts – deadly heat waves, destroyed vital infrastructure, disrupted food and water supplies, flooded homes, schools and hospitals - disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable. The World Bank Group’s new Action Plan on Adaptation and Resilience is important and timely. It lays out a strategy to boost our efforts on adaptation and resilience.

The Wealth of Nature 2017

This report considers the linkages between natural capital and human prosperity. It finds that the erosion of natural capital poses threats to continued national and global prosperity, yet political and economic systems are unprepared for responding to that risk for three reasons. First, natural capital is not being accurately measured or valued in the context of ecological tipping points and thresholds. Second, aggregate economic models are ill-equipped for seeing the dependencies between ‘capitals’. Most cost-benefit analyses and economic methodologies used in everyday decisions assume that natural capital can be easily substituted by man-made capital, when in fact it cannot. Third, we lack appropriate political and economic institutions to manage natural capital effectively; even national wealth accounts provide an incomplete picture of the value of natural capital. 
PODCASTS

FutureMakers Season 2

Returning for its second series, the University of Oxford’s Futuremakers podcast is the ‘fly on the wall’ to the debates between our academics and leading experts from around the world around what, and how, climate action should be taken.
Each of these longer conversations features four of our academics at the cutting edge of research and at the forefront of their profession – but for this new series we’re also joined by other key voices in the debate, such as politicians and student activists.

Not Cool: A Climate Podcast

The Future of Life Institute started this podcast because the news about climate change seems to get worse with each new article and report, but the solutions, at least as reported, remain vague and elusive. We wanted to hear from the scientists and experts themselves to learn what’s really going on and how we can all come together to solve this crisis.

Mothers of Invention

Climate change is a man-made problem with a feminist solution! Join former Irish President Mary Robinson and comedian Maeve Higgins in this uplifting and fascinating new podcast, and meet a host of game-changing women fighting to save all our lives

People Fixing the World

Brilliant solutions to the world’s problems. The BBC meet people with ideas to make the world a better place and investigate whether they work.

A Sustainable Mind Podcast

'A Sustainable Mind started out as my master’s thesis project. I found that there were not a lot of people present in the conversations I was attending that looked or identified as I do. In classes, conferences and events I was one of few women, fewer young people and often the only woman of color. 
This show is my way of expanding the conversation to include everyone. I set an intention before every interview to truly be the audience. Anyone, from a middle school student to a retiree, and everyone that is not necessarily educated on the topics at hand should be able to listen with ease. 
It is the responsibility of all of us to improve this place we call home so we must all be present at the table.'
BOOKS