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Want to avoid greenwashing label? Go from targets to action, track progress, suggests Catherine McKenna
Everyone's talking about greenwashing at COP26. Why? For Catherine McKenna, Canada's former minister of Infrastructure and Communities, it's too easy to make commitments without having a process in place to deliver. Good words, she says, are no longer enough. "We need to understand how you're going to translate your targets into real action. And then we need to track that progress. That's exactly what governments need to do, but it's also what businesses need to do."
McKenna spoke during a live Global Stage event, "Climate Crisis: Is net zero really possible?" Watch the full event here.
Africa needs reachable climate goals, says DRC lawmaker Jeanine Mabunda
Africa is barely responsible for today's climate crisis, yet African governments are being asked to stop using fossil fuels like everyone else. That just won't work, says DRC member of parliament and former speaker Jeanine Mabunda Lioko, unless rich nations make good on their climate finance pledges for the continent. Africa, she explains, needs "concrete and reachable goals" that provide access to reliable energy, and there will be a lot of pressure to deliver on promises ahead of the next COP climate summit, which will take place in an African country.
Mabunda spoke during a live Global Stage event, "Climate Crisis: Is net zero really possible?" Watch the full event here.
"What's it worth to save everything we have?" asks climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe
Why do governments and corporations set Net Zero goals when the science just says to just cut emissions ASAP? For atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy and Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University., it's too easy for humans to procrastinate on doing stuff 30 or 40 years from now. That's why she says we need more near-term goals with "everything on the table," given what's really at risk is not the planet — but rather us. "So the question is not, 'Could we possibly spend too much trying to fix climate change?' No. The question is, 'What's it worth to save everything we have?'"
Companies moving from climate pledges to judging performance, says Microsoft’s Lucas Joppa
As governments haggle climate deals to curb emissions way into the future at COP26, Microsoft chief environmental officer Lucas Joppa says the private sector is moving beyond lofty pledges to talk about performance. Instead of what your commitments are, he explains, corporations are asking each other how they're scoring on what they promised to do. "How are you measuring carbon? How are you accounting for carbon? What are the systems that need to be put in place to actually make this whole Net Zero thing work?"
Joppa spoke during a live Global Stage event, Climate Crisis: Is net zero really possible? Watch the full event here.