Penguin Perspectives Blog

Flash forward: it is 2075 and we’ve set sail for the RCP 8.5 trajectory for 2100, the worst case climate scenario according to the IPCC. Imagine this: Pacific islands such as Tuvalu have long sunk into a rising ocean, heat and pollution take a toll on the global population, hurricanes and fires devastate poor communities on a regular basis, and huge swaths of Asia and Africa have become uninhabitable due to heat and drought. Quick shift back to the present: luckily we are not there. However, we are still far away from the emissions trajectory necessary for a 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming.

The Paris Agreement brings about two fundamental changes that affect the case for carbon offsets in the transition to a low-carbon economy – high ambition and universal scope. The agreement introduces ambitious long-term targets and demands climate action and engagement from all parties to the Agreement to ultimately reach net zero targets by 2050. So how can offsets be effectively integrated into compliance schemes in a way that upholds the principles of environmental integrity and raises climate ambition post-2020?

The coming year will see countries seek robust mechanisms to effectively increase the climate ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Climate Agreement. Given the concerns on the economic costs of stronger climate action, certain compliance schemes are incorporating offsets as a way of containing costs.

Many businesses are responding to growing stakeholder pressure by making commitments to reduce their impact on the environment and boost company sustainability. This includes committing to a net zero ambition. Meeting such targets depends on a combination of variables: consistent senior management ownership, internal buy-in, sufficient resources, and effective technologies. This article - exploring Step 3 of the South Pole Climate Journey – guides you through the essentials to ensure you are well prepared for a net zero target, maintaining your climate actions through successful completion.

The maritime shipping sector faces a decarbonisation deadlock. While pressure to downsize its GHG footprint increases rapidly, the sector remains responsible for over 1 billion tons of CO2e or 2.89% of global emissions, with an increase of 9.6% in 2018 compared to 2012 levels. Looking specifically at methane emissions, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) found an increase of 150%.

When politicians gathered in December 2015 to negotiate the Paris Climate Agreement, countries were asked to set national emissions reduction targets to limit global warming and slow climate change. Five years on during a global pandemic and amidst cries to 'build back better', it's clear that the need for ambitious private sector action is more important than ever.

Last January, at the turn of the decade, a cross-sector push for corporate climate action was well underway. Calls for a better built environment were growing also in the construction industry. In Australia, hundreds of architecture firms signed onto ‘Architects Declare’ — an alliance that recognises the looming climate and biodiversity emergencies and today has close to 1000 signatories.

The core aspect of innovating to find new sources of financing for green infrastructure is identifying the multiple beneficiaries and monetizing their benefits. Green infrastructure in a city benefits all citizens’ well-being, but certain citizens, businesses, investors, and public departments will have additional financial benefits from well-designed green infrastructure. By capturing a small portion of these benefits that result from public investments, local governments can partly or entirely finance the investment and maintenance costs of green infrastructure.

By working with nature, we can avoid unleashing ‘irrecoverable carbon’ and conserve biodiversity – a cornerstone of our economic and social fabric that affects the industries we have and the food we eat. This is something that REDD+ projects (‘reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation’) are working to do.

Located halfway between California and Hawaii, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a long way from land. The center of the patch is roughly 1200 nautical miles from the coast of San Francisco. Traditional methods to clean up, vessels and nets, are not sustainable solutions. This is why The Ocean Cleanup has, since its inception, worked towards developing a passive system that can do the hard job of concentrating the plastic for us, using the natural forces of the ocean. With the help of South Pole, a leading developer of climate protection projects, we have compensated for the carbon emissions from all fuel consumed during the System 001 campaign.