Key notes from the webinar with Jim Skea 16/11/20 for The Crowd‘s Green Recovery Festival

Jim Skea is Co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) October 8, 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C

Climate Breakdown

In most modelling scenarios, there is a requirement for some kind of CO2 removal, to compensate for difficult industries such as aviation, but also just to take surplus from today back out the atmosphere

IPCC are very concerned about climate breakdown and land use, ie:

• agriculture, forests, soil management
• dietary change, food losses

Clear message was that land-use measures were win-win:

• helped mitigate change
• adapt to climate changes
• addressed desertification and land degradation
• positive implications for food security

Green Recovery Reports

Electricity (wind & solar PV), Transport (new electric and high efficiency cars) and most importantly, Buildings (retrofits and more efficient new buildings, appliance efficiency and clean cooking)

Retrofitting currently the most obvious tactic:

• reduces CO2 emissions
• gives ppl jobs
• improves quality of life

Could we include green roofs and living walls in our project and get funding under retrofitting banner? Eg herb walls and hops?

Recommendations for building a fairer, greener economy – commissioned report by Scottish Gov

• Boost investment in warmer homes
• back buses and support supply chain
• help rural economy by helping Scotland’s nature
• Maintain and create new jobs for oil and gas workers
• Align skills dev for young and old – with the net -zero transition
• Give clear sense of direction and attach conditions to funding

Worth keeping an eye out for similar report here in England, and/or push for change in line with these recommendations

COP26

• Countries were supposed to submit contributions by end of 2020. They’re coming in slowly but might be 2021
• Chinese pledge to meet net zero by 2060
• The rulebook for implementing the Paris Agreement was supposed to be fixed by now, but it’s not. The gap is around carbon trading. It would be a real achievement if the UK residency could pull that one off

Paris Agreement goals are:

• long-term global goal, well below 2C, pursuing efforts towards 1.5C
• foster climate resilience
• consistent financial flows

“It’s easy for politicians to make pledges towards net zero in 20-30 years time. The hardest bit is for them to come up with concrete actions for the next 5-10 years that really sets up that pathway”. How can we contribute to the roadmap?

“One of the strengths of the Paris Agreement is that it’s bottom up. If you have Europe, US and China agreeing to commit, then you’re starting to reach critical mass and there’s cause for optimism”

“Experts were having a hard time for a while, now via C-19 they seem to be coming back into fashion! With Citizens’ Assembly people who may have been skeptical are having their minds changed. The debate is now not whether Climate Breakdown is real or not, but it’s about how to achieve the ambition to reach net-zero”

The Just Transition Movement is asking whether you use Climate Change Action to address some of the current inequalities around the world (eg from systemic inequalities between nations right down to small scale inequalities eg in Scotland there are rural communities that don’t have digital connectivity). How does the Locavore project address inequalities in Folkestone and sit within a Just Transition Framework?

“City Leaders – get on with it! The interesting things about cities is that transport and planning departments are more integrated than at a national level.”

Investing in Climate Change Solutions

“Given the objective of increasing financial flows in PA incl money leveraged from the private sector get things moving. Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change. 

“Many of the initiates needed are very capital heavy – offshore wind farms etc. These need the patient long-term investing, eg pension funds. Also, many of the things we need to do are small scale, eg household energy efficiency, or planting trees at the farm level. So the challenge is in packaging these small scale projects together so they’re juicy enough for larger investors”

“Public procurement is critical. Councils of gov departments have the opportunity to stimulate new markets by getting them going eg fleets of electric vehicles”

“I do think the Climate Assembly ideas are really useful. Making sure that all the newspapers are picking it up, not just the guardian but the daily mail too – the telegraph would certainly be an achievement!” Is our local press covering Climate Breakdown? How can Custom raise awareness? Presence at COP26? Streaming? Local events?