Moving beyond target setting in the race to Net Zero, the Road to the Paris Summit and Ban Ki-moon
This week's update includes highlights from Vienna, what it will take to move beyond mere target setting when it comes to avoiding climate change, plus what a new Paris Summit might bring.
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Grüß Gott from Wien! As I mentioned, this past week I was in Vienna for the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens board meeting – I’ve been on Ban Ki-moon’s board since he stood as the 8th Secretary-General of the UN.
People often wonder what Ban Ki-moon is up to these days. One of his main focuses is advising global leaders on how to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a 17-point plan aimed at reducing inequality, combating climate change, and eradicating extreme poverty. Through his center's guidance, the Austrian Government has improved its SDG ranking from 9th to 5th in just five years. Hopefully, other countries will follow suit and seek Ban's expertise in sustainable development leadership.
Here are some other highlights from this week. As always, please feel free to forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe!
Science-Based Targets Are Just The Beginning: How Companies Can Reduce Emissions And Achieve Net Zero
🌍👀💡 As companies adopt net-zero targets, attention is shifting to ensuring necessary management practices & actions are in place to reach those targets.
📈 Science-based targets mandate real emissions reductions, but meeting them will involve a substantial overhaul of operations & strategy.
🌱 For some companies, buying green electricity isn't enough to meet net-zero targets. They'll need to change their products & business model.
🔍 Initial findings reveal that only 15%-20% of companies that set 1.5-degree targets with the Science Based Targets initiative have the necessary governance structures in place to actually achieve these goals.
🚨 But new regulatory guidelines and investor pressure may change that. Norway's $1.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, for example, now requires companies within its portfolio to align with net-zero 2050 and establish science-based targets for emissions reduction.
Read more about effective management practices for achieving net-zero targets in my latest article. Special thanks to Fredrik Fogde, Associate Director of Climate Content at Sustainalytics, for sharing his insights with me this weekend!
Recapping The Road to Paris
Loyal readers will have seen Tuesday’s special edition newsletter, where I informed you all about the Paris Summit Briefing Session we held yesterday, informing listeners about the elusive upcoming financing summit co-hosted by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi.
My Global Citizen colleague Friederike Röder held the session, demystifying what we do currently know about its format and reading the tea leaves so to speak to shed light on what topics we suspect might be on the agenda. At the broadest level, the summit will focus on delivering more reliable resourcing for climate adaptation and poverty reduction to the hardest hit countries.
The summit is being led by a steering committee and working groups tackling topics such as increasing the fiscal space for affected countries, financing the private sector in low income countries, increasing investments into green infrastructure, and securing additional resources like insurance-based mechanisms for climate-vulnerable countries. She touched on advocacy targets, like closing the $16bn Copenhagen commitment gap or mechanisms to address the current debt stock, that will need a unified push from civil society to make it on the agenda.
More than 160 people joined us and we’re grateful for the enthusiasm and cooperative spirit that will carry us to the summit this June. We have created a WhatsApp group for those who want to be involved in: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Dk3MPyqZXzf12j2tNYbHSJ
If you weren’t able to attend Thursday’s session, stay tuned for a recording coming soon!
COVID-19: Three Years On
March 11 marks three years since the WHO first characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic, and to commemorate that moment and the work of our partners I’m sharing a new case study: How Lady Gaga & Global Citizens United to Fight COVID-19 Impacts, From Housing to Health Care, to celebrate the impact of pledges made at the Global Citizen’s 2020 event in partnership with the WHO, One World: Together at Home and effect it’s had on communities around the world. To mark this occasion, Global Citizen has put together a social toolkit here – grateful for your support across social media!
A Special Message from Monika Fröhler, Ban Ki-moon Centre
While in Vienna this week, I had the pleasure of seeing my good friend Monika Fröhler, CEO of the Ban Ki Moon Center for Global Citizens. There, Monika recorded a special message for Global Citizens around the world … check it out on Twitter here.
Sabrina Dhowre Elba & MP Helen Grant: 'The Time to Invest in Education Is NOW'
March 8th marked International Women’s Day and, in honor of this very important day, Global Citizen had the distinct pleasure of working with Global Citizen Europe Board Member Sabrina Elba, and MP Helen Grant, on an op-ed on the importance of investing in education, particularly as a means of empowering girls, and allowing them to carve out their own futures and write their own stories. Last month, I was proud to moderate Education Cannot Wait’s (ECW) Replenishment Conference in Geneva, where an astounding $826 million was raised, including the United Kingdom announcing a new pledge of £90 million to support education in emergencies and protracted crises, with £80 million to ECW. It is investments like this that allow ECW to continue its critical work to reach 222 million children, allowing their dreams to come true. You can read the full piece here.
Citi Foundation’s Global Innovation Challenge
The Citi Foundation have announced their first-ever Global Innovation Challenge to help scale the impact of nonprofits around the world that are developing innovative solutions to improve food security. This philanthropic initiative is looking to award grants of $500,000 to 50 nonprofits around the world working to improve food security and strengthen the financial health of underserved families. And they are seeking applicants to this program right now.
Organizations must register to confirm they meet the eligibility requirements and gain access to the Citi Foundation’s online grantmaking portal. The deadline to register to apply is 4pm Eastern Daylight Time on March 22, 2023.
My Weekend Reading List
Young women, do you need more confidence? This is how to get it
Occupation ‘eating away’ at Israeli, Palestinian societies: Türk
That’s all for this week! Hope you enjoyed this week’s recap, and that the above reading will keep you busy through the weekend.
As always, if you’re enjoying the weekly newsletter format, and want even more, you can subscribe to my Substack here where I publish reviews, lists and articles on a regular basis.
All best,
Mick