World Wildlife Fund Nature Breaking

This week marks the start of the annual UN climate conference, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. COP29 is being dubbed the “finance COP” because one of the main focuses of this year’s conference will be to set a new goal for global climate finance and to lay out a plan for achieving it. The last time countries set a climate finance goal was 2009, at COP15 in Copenhagen, where wealthy nations committed to provide $100 billion annually to help developing nations deal with climate change.

Today, rather than interviewing a WWF expert in-dept on a specific topic, we’re trying something new. Seth will be joined by Hayley Lawton from WWF’s social media team for something we’re calling: Headlines & Trendlines. You’ll hear Seth and Hayley briefly summarize some recent news articles and talk about what they mean for climate and nature.

Next week global leaders will convene in Cali, Colombia for an important meeting: the 16^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16). You’re probably more familiar with the climate COP that happens every year, but the biodiversity COP is a critical forum for addressing the loss of nature.

Today’s episode revisits the climate catastrophe that hit Pakistan two years ago this month in the form of historic floods. In July and August of 2022, Pakistan received nearly double its typical rainfall nationwide, with some localized areas receiving over four times the usual amount. Simply put, the water had nowhere to go. A third of the country was submerged underwater. Two million homes were destroyed and four million acres of agricultural land were ruined. Millions were left without access to drinking water, and the loss of crops led to food shortages. It was a humanitarian disaster of the highest order.

This has been a year of record temperatures across the globe. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), June 2024 was the warmest June on record and the 13th consecutive month of record-high temperatures. This follows news from the Copernicus Climate Change Service that we recently experienced a 12-month period in which every month was at least 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial temperatures. That’s significant not just because it felt a little hotter for all of us, but because climate scientists have identified 1.5 degrees Celsius as a critical global warming threshold to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

As we approach the upcoming Juneteenth holiday, today’s episode is about environmental justice. You’ve probably heard that term before, but in short, it refers to the notion that underserved and historically underrepresented communities with higher populations of black, indigenous, and other peoples of color, have born a disproportionate share of the impacts from climate change and environmental degradation. And over the last few decades there’s been a growing movement to address that disparity head on, by raising awareness, engaging companies and other actors that contribute to localized environmental harm, and by changing federal, state and local policies to ensure better outcomes.

Food waste is a major contributor to the climate and nature crises. And food date labels are fueling the problem. Right now consumers might see upwards of 50 different terms used on food items: Use By, Sell By, Best By, etc. Confusion caused by this patchwork of terms leads many people to simply throw out food that may still be perfectly good to eat. Congress could help by passing the Food Date Labeling Act (FDLA), which would establish a simple, nationwide framework focused on just two terms: “Best If Used By,” or “Use By.” The bill would also provide clear guidance to consumers about how to interpret those terms.

What is green hydrogen? In short, it’s hydrogen produced using entirely renewable electricity, which can then be used for industrial processes like creating cement or steel, among other things. That’s important because those industrial processes are currently the third-largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, after the transportation and electricity sectors. If we can power those processes with green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels, it could go a long way toward helping the US meet its climate goals. But getting there is pretty complicated.

For the last 12 days world leaders have convened in Dubai for COP28, the critically important UN climate summit. Important progress has been achieved on some issues, but negotiations have been more difficult in other areas, including on finalizing the Global Stocktake and determining whether it will include language about the need to “phase out” fossil fuels. As COP28 winds to a close this week, we spoke to Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, WWF International’s Global Lead for Climate and Energy. In addition to spearheading WWF’s global climate work, Manuel also previously served as the president of COP20 back in 2014.

COP28 kicks off on November 30 in Dubai – that’s the annual UN summit where national governments come together to assess global climate efforts. Today’s episode is a two-part preview for this year’s summit.