In 1992, nearly 200 nations approved the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It mandated that nations work together “to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. Historically high-polluting industrial countries were given special responsibility to lead the transition to climate-smart energy and economics. 29 years later, the 26th annual Conference of the Parties […]
News from UN Climate Change UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on all governments to come forward with significantly more ambitious nationally determined contributions by the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, at the latest, with 2030 targets consistent with a net zero pathway. During a briefing to Member States, Mr. Guterres cited an exponential growth of […]
The Geoversiv podcast Earth Intelligence is now live, and available on Buzzsprout, or from your favorite podcasting platform. Earth Intelligence is your window into the frontier work of imagining, designing, forging, and securing a future of sustainable health and resilience, open to all. Sun Tzu warned that we must know the terrain, in order to succeed against […]
The future of energy is being shaped by many converging forces, among them: Fast-moving multifaceted innovation; The geophysical and human health need for clean energy; Sustained and expanding growth-potential for low-carbon investments; Urban planning, energy-efficient building, and utility reform; Financial innovation, including integration of Earth science insights; The COVID-19 pandemic disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic emergency […]
An Earth Day 2020 talk, delivered to Lehigh University by Joseph Robertson, on the 50th annual Earth Day—April 22, 2020. Integrative Geopolitics: Climate Resilience in a Post-COVID World This online event is the keynote for Lehigh’s Earth Week 2020 Celebration, with support from the Office of Sustainability, in collaboration with the Environmental Initiative, Environmental Studies […]
The biggest growth opportunity in finance is climate-aligned investment and innovation. In 2018, all major asset classes struggled to earn. Cash was the asset class that expanded the most, signaling a pull-back from new investment and a wait-and-see attitude. In 2019, trade tensions spurred worries of a global economic slowdown that could lead to recession. […]
Tracking of interacting compounding risks shows higher value of financing external returns. Resilience is the ability to weather and emerge from shock events. Resilience intelligence is the complex work of understanding whether we are positioned to do so. Structured, evolving guidance, rooted in Earth systems science, is critical for achieving reliable ongoing operational resilience. The […]
Studies of significant changes to the Jet Stream—a fast-moving river of air that plays a major role in regulating climate patterns—show increasing risk of prolonged catastrophic drought and threats to the human food supply. Scientific American is reporting: extreme jet stream patterns like those of 2018 may be getting more common and more extreme, representing […]
How much do we value human freedom? For thousands of years people of all variety of experience and influence have debated whether free will exists and which universe would be more full of virtue and good fortune—one that is fated or one that is free. Today, technology is flooding our experience with hard-to-trace information and […]
A week before Christmas, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, wrote in the Financial Times that the UK is now stress-testing banks for climate risk and resilience. Specifically, he writes: Modelling for the full extent of climate-related financial risk is complex and challenging. Britain can lead the way next year, when we […]
COP25 Closing Statement from the Citizens’ Climate delegation The future of humankind will be shaped and defined by how well we manage our relationship to the climate system. Nations that move too slowly are ensuring they will face higher costs, expanded vulnerability, and reduced benefit from international cooperation. The Citizens’ Climate delegation came into the […]
CCE COP25 Press Conference The Paris Agreement was achieved four years ago today. How far have we come? What can we do to rapidly upgrade the design of national climate action? On Saturday, December 12, 2015, the 196 nations of the UNFCCC process agreed to work together to end the industrial disruption of the climate […]
