It's abundantly clear - we cannot wait for policy to drive action

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Well, Reader, while we're still keening from the US election result which is set to create unfavourable global political and economic conditions for genuine sustainability action, it's COP time again, this time in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Conference of the Parties is in its 29th session, and there's been decidedly more criticism of the forum as we edge ever closer to the 2030 'deadline' with little to show for it in terms of meaningful progress.

Many influential folks in the climate space are boycotting, especially as it's becoming easier to spot the hypocrisy, with senior officials of COP caught on video doing oil and gas deals as reported by the BBC last week.

From our perspective, the major issue is that all this does is discredit and undermine sustainability efforts, making a mockery of the science and disincentivising action. It also screams loudly and clearly once again: policy will not drive the necessary market transformation - it's up to businesses and citizens.

We've seen this line getting around recently, but often think it: the climate crisis doesn't pick sides. It's not blue or red or green-aligned in its politics. It won't spare some and not others.

So, here are some thoughts that we've been pondering for the last couple of weeks:

• How might we stay respectfully engaged in conversations, to empathise with one another?
• How might we find common ground so we can collaborate on solutions?
• What is the tipping point for action and how might we gracefully nurture it into reality?

What do you make of this, Reader?

All hands on deck,

Melissa

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P.S. Before we sign off, are we connected on LinkedIn yet? Let's be sure to fix that:

🌱 Connect with Melissa​

🌱 Connect with Adam​

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Inspiring Purpose

​Go Kindly is an Australian-owned social enterprise selling ethically sourced and sustainably made pillows and bedding products. It does not allow any single-use plastic in its supply chain and has introduced a pillow recycling scheme to help manage end-of-product-life waste better.

50% of Go Kindly profits are donated towards women experiencing homelessness or housing stress, aligned with the founders' initial organising purpose to create a kinder, more equitable world. In fact, one of the founder's origin stories is particularly interesting so it's worth taking a sticky beak at their site (particularly if you're in the market for some new bedding).

Business As Unusual Innovation

​The Great Bubble Barrier is an example of innovation for future needs. It's a process that can divert 80% of plastic rubbish to the side of rivers before it has a chance to reach the ocean, simply by using air.

Plastic waste is choking waterways globally and it accounts for a significant proportion of what constitutes 'novel entities' - one of the nine planetary boundaries that is currently breached. While one obvious part of the solution is to stop plastic waste at the source (production and consumption), the significant challenge remains to clean up what's already there.

This Dutch invention pumps air via a device laid diagonally on the riverbed. The bubbles produced push the rubbish to the side of the river for collection. This process is less harmful to wildlife than physical barriers.

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Roundup

Melissa recently attended a Planetary Boundaries workshop. Hosted online, in a very similar structure to the Climate Fresk workshops we already facilitate, it was a very accessible, though sobering, way to fill in knowledge gaps about critical earth systems. Would you like to learn more about planetary boundaries? Hit reply and let us know.

We stumbled across Electricity Maps which shows you where the electricity of (much of) the world is sourced from and how much CO2 is generated. Tap on your location to see the GW breakdown by energy source in real-time.

​This journal article caught our attention as it explores global progress towards 'decoupling from CO2 emissions' (i.e. can we still 'grow' and without increasing emissions? And what degree of decoupling is actually sufficient?). It's the ultimate energy transition question for economists... what do you think?

Mars Petcare, with the help of funding from the Australian Government, is installing renewable energy capability in the form of a Concentrated Solar Thermal Plant in Wodonga. As an addition to its existing renewable mix it aims to put the energy usage at the Wodonga site to 100% renewable by 2026.

What We're Reading

We're turning the tables this week: what are YOU reading at the moment? Have any of the books we've shared made it to your reading list? We'd love to know what you've found interesting.

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