Bionic Planet: Your Guide To The New Reality

Under the Paris Climate Agreement, countries must document all of their greenhouse gas emissions and sinks, and that means measuring changes in tree cover. NASA Senior Scientist Sassan Saatchi has spent 30 years helping the world’s space agencies and foresters do just that by blending the newest science of the space age with centuries-old practices from ship-building and forestry. Thanks, to him, countries will soon be able track the growth and decay of every tree within their borders. 

Just over four years ago, Max DuBuisson took on one of the most difficult challenges you can imagine: namely, spearheading the creation of a new carbon methodoilogy undr both the Verified Carbon Standard and the Climate Action Reserve. Dubbed the "Methodology for Improved Agricultural Land Management," it aims to expand the practice of climate-smart agriculture by paying farmers who adopt the practices before their neighbors do. This is the story of the creation of that methodology. Further reading: https://verra.org/methodologies/methodology-for-improved-agricultural-land-management/

Tim Mohin wrote "Changing Business from the Inside Out: A Tree-Hugger's Guide to Working in Corporations" back in 2012, after three decades in sustainability -- first in government, with the US Environmental Protection Agency, and then at companies like Intel, where he served as director of sustainable development. He went on to head the Global Reporting Initiative, which administers the GRI standards for sustainability. He recently helped launmch ESG data provider Persefoni and hosts his own podcast, "Sustainability Decoded with Tim and Caitlin." We look back on 40 years of sustaiability finance and ahead to the future of Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) reporting -- its potential for driving real change, its prospects for employment, and its inherent limitations.

On October 2, 2022, the US Supreme court heard a case that could impact the quality of water across the United States. Sackett v EPA dates back to 2004, but the forces impacting the case date back to the 1960s and, arguably, centuries earlier.  Today we revisit a 2019 episode, where we dove deep into the history of the US Clean Water Act and the stealth effort to undermine it. 

Marco Cerezo of Guatemalan NGO FUNDAECO explains how he's using carbon finance to help Guatemalan farmers demarcate their land and save surrounding forests. Related Links: https://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/2021/10/marco-cerezo/  https://registry.verra.org/mymodule/ProjectDoc/Project_ViewFile.asp?FileID=43006&IDKEY=2iquwesdfmnk0iei23nnm435oiojnc909dsflk9809adlkmlkfd59305274

The science-denial movement delayed action on climate change for decades, and now the tropes they used are creeping into coverage of emerging climate solutions. Here’s one way of differentiating between honest inquiry and something more nefarious. Third of a three-part series. All links available at: https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/opinionwhere-does-healthy-critique-end-and-cynical-denial-begin/ https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/opinionwhere-does-healthy-critique-end-and-cynical-denial-begin/

When popular media get natural climate solutions wrong, it’s usually because they’re struggling to understand complex mechanisms that have evolved over more than 45 years. Here is a brief look back on that evolution. Second of a three-part series adapted from Ecosystem Marketplace Click here for the original story and all related links: https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/opinionsix-lessons-from-the-history-of-natural-climate-solutions/ 

News outlets are finally allocating resources to coverage of climate solutions, and most reporters are trying to get these complex issues right. Some, however, are repeating the same mistakes that derailed coverage of climate science itself for decades. Adapted from stories that first appeared on Ecosystem Marketplace, available here: https://medium.com/@stevenwilliamzwick/will-coverage-of-climate-solutions-suffer-the-same-fate-as-coverage-of-climate-science-b63877e090f1  

We kick off Season Seven with a look at the  Voluntary Carbon Market Global Dialogue and the six keys to making sure voluntary carbon markets work for the Global South. Guests: Adriaan Korthuis, Paul Butarbutar, Kuki Soejachmoen, and Annie Groth. Related Links: https://vcm-gd.org/ https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/shades-of-redd-corresponding-adjustments-for-voluntary-markets-seriously/  

A conversation with WRI Senior Fellow Frances Seymour, who says there's plenty of reason to believe the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use could deliver on its high ambition of ending and reversing deforestation -- not so much because of the declaration itself, but because of the constellation of world events that birthed it. Frances is also co-author of the book "Why Forests? Why Now? The Science, Economics, and Politics of Tropical Forests and Climate Change."

From year-end climate talks in Glasgow: Want to put your money where your mouth is by investing in companies that move us closer to a net-zero economy? Matthias Krey of pureclimatestocks.com can help. He's identified hundreds of companies that he call "pure climate stocks", meaning stocks of companies that make 100% of their revenue from products and services that will help get us to net-zero emissions.

On the ground at year-end climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, Maria Carvalho and Frédéric Gagnon-Lebrun of South Pole Climate Solutions dissect the intricacies of Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement. They explain not only how it works, but how it fits into the net-zero movement and the larger effort to meet the climate challenge.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which is the United Nations specialized agency charged with promoting sustainable tourism, today unveiled the “Glasgow Declaration for Climate Action in Tourism” at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) here. The Declaration commits companies to cutting their emissions in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, with all residual emissions being absorbed through ecological restoration by 2050 at the latest. More than 300 stakeholders have signed the declaration, including the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents more than  300 companies responsible for more than 70 percent of global tourism. “The commitment is to not only reduce the footprint by changing business as usual operations, but also offsetting…through blue carbon, for example,” said UNWTO Executive Director Zoritsa Urosevic in an interview with Ecosystem Marketplace. “This is going to become, maybe, the new tourism attraction, because it's going to have a value that is m

We need to slash greenhouse-gas emissions while supporting activities that remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, and carbon markets can both accelerate reductions and ramp up removals. Why, then, is the debate so contentious? For answers, I turned to Eli-Mitchell Larson, a self-proclaimed “Carbon Removal Evangelist” who's helping to build up Carbon Removal Advocacy Europe (CRAE). We had a long and fruitful discussion that I think serves as a sort of reductions and removals 101.

Biologists, economists, and environmental activists often seem like members of warring tribes, but Gabriel Eickhoff, CEO of Lestari Capital, says they're more like estranged family members who just haven't started talking to each other yet.  In a wide-ranging discussion, we look at the legacy of the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, the structure of supply chains, and the interconnectedness of all things. 

Guest: Eron Bloomgarden, Emergent Capital Launched on Earth Day, the LEAF (Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance) Coalition aims to double the price of forest-carbon offsets and multiply the amount of money going into forest protection. Heres's how it works. Featuring: Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg; US Climate Envoy John Kerry; UK's Environment Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith; US State Dept Climate Change and Land Sector Expert Chris Dragisic; Amazon Chief Scientist Jamey Mulligan.

We cannot adapt our way out of the climate mess, as Allie Goldstein of Conservation International and Mark Trexler of the Climate Web make clear. We discuss the realities of systemic climate risk. Research cited in today’s show: "The private sector’s climate change risk and adaptation blind spots" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0340-5 "Persistent Business Blind Spots on Climate Risk and Adaptation," http://gca.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Persistent_Business_Blind_Spots_on_Climate_Risk_and_Adaptation.pdf The Climate Web: www.theclimateweb.com Climate Web Roadmaps: https://roadmapslite.climatesites.net   https://roadmapunderestimatedrisk.climatesites.net https://systemicriskroadmaplite.climatesites.net    Videos:  Playing Climate Chess using the Climate Web    https://youtu.be/cnf7FM2zfNg   Actionable Climate Knowledge through the Climate Web  https://youtu.be/L37v2-DXWk0 Solving Climate Change with the Climate Web  https://youtu.be/Py9eJM2DRT0  Link to wildfire risk map: https://bra.in/6pygXQ  

Carpetmaker Interface has won accolades for its carbon-negative carpet, the manufacture of which pulls more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits. He're a look back on the company's 20-year journey from plundered of nature to climate leader.  Guest: Buddy Hay, Interface VP for Sustainability

What do Bill Gates, Mark Carney, Annette Nazareth, and Agustin Silvani have in common? They all believe that well-designed voluntary carbon markets can help the world achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions in time to avert disaster. Today, they explain the new Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVDM)  Most music provided by Blue Dot Sessions

The UN's Emissions Gap Report showed that the current Paris Agreement Climate Plans (NDCs )will leave us nowhere near where we need to be to avert a climate catastrophe. Will Burns of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University joins me in a year-end retrospective.