Reflecting on Earth Day 2022 with the Subak community
Two weeks after the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released, Earth Day 2022 could not come at a more pressing time. The report unequivocally stated that keeping global temperature rises below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels means that global greenhouse gas emissions must peak in 2025, and halve by the end of the decade. Such a statement, amongst other mitigation targets in the report linked to global emissions, certainly is a gloomy reminder of the urgency of the climate crisis and importance of coordinated and radical climate action.
This Earth Day, themed around Investing in our Planet, argues:
We need to act (boldly), innovate (broadly), and implement (equitably). It’s going to take all of us. All in. Businesses, governments, and citizens — everyone accounted for, and everyone accountable. A partnership for the planet.
Subak’s community seeks to accelerate climate action in manifold ways, always underpinned by data. Whilst the specific focus area of each Subak community member varies, a commitment to collaborative climate action - and investing in our planet - unites us all.
In this spirit, we’ve brought together three representatives from our community to illuminate what Earth Day and ‘investing in our planet’ means to them, and how to stay positive and empowered in the face of gloomy climate news. In this blog, we’ll hear from:
George Biesmans, AimHi Earth (Subak Member Organisation)
AimHi Earth equip people and organisations with the essential understanding, skills and ideas to overcome the climate and nature crisis and ensure a healthier, fairer, more prosperous future.
Sriya Sundaresan, TransitionZero (Subak Member Organisation)
TransitionZero provide financial analytics to make zero carbon a reality.
Vickesh Solanki, Horizon (Subak Fellowship)
Horizon fights plastic waste and helps everyone learn about packaging and dispose of it responsibly.
Staying positive amongst the noise
According to George of AimHi Earth, an education-to-action organisation centred around transforming global understanding of the climate and nature crisis, investing in the planet is inherent to their organisation’s mission. “Not necessarily financially, but in terms of recognising and celebrating the intrinsic value and beauty of our planet, of our natural world, and encouraging others to understand how nature is ultimately at the centre of everything”, he states.
“We don’t sugarcoat the seriousness of the crisis we’re facing but we also consciously make space for hope, imagination and solutions to flourish. Ultimately, these are the ingredients which will take us to where we need to be, not despair and denial.”
Echoing the notion of elevating positive examples as a key ingredient for investing in our planet, Vickesh nods to the importance of a solutions-focused mindset. “Now, more than ever, we are seeing thousands of people unite to bring about change. Entrepreneurs are focusing on changing the system and investment in solutions are at an all time high”, he argues.
Through his data-driven app Horizon, Vickesh is building a platform designed specifically to empower communities and not just focus on individual action. When a volunteer adds packaging data to Horizon, they help every other user who subsequently scans that product. This small act is an investment in itself.
Scaling up financial investment for our planet
Looking to financial investment as a key mechanism for investing in our planet, Sriya, TransitionZero, argues for the clear and urgent need to mobilise and scale up capital to invest in the transition to a zero carbon economy. Sriya points to several ways to facilitate this, from removing policy blockers, to scaling up blended finance instruments, to effectively utilising financial tools such as green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds.
“The recent IPCC report finds that financial flows need to be 3-6 times higher by 2030, and that crucially, capital and liquidity exists to fill this gap. We cannot expect public finance to cover the cost of the transition alone - private finance must be scaled up to meet this challenge. Investment is a vital piece of the transition puzzle.”
Speaking to the role of individual action in tackling financial flows into harmful industries, George also argues that investing in our planet also means divesting from those things which are actively undermining climate action and destroying wildlife on a massive scale.
In AimHi Earth’s Climate and Sustainability trainings for organisations, policy-makers, educators and the public, they seek to shed light on concrete ways in which we can shift our money away from banks, pension schemes and other financial institutions which are funding the fossil fuel industry and the destruction of nature, towards those which put regeneration at the heart of what they do.
Similarly seeking to shed light through data-driven research, TransitionZero illustrate how their work resonates with this year’s Earth Day theme through providing data and insights that investors can use to drive their energy transition planning. According to Sriya, access to better quality data and transparency in investments lead to better financial decisions and outcomes.
What tips do you have for those feeling disempowered to act on climate?
Referencing the words of Jane Goodall: “Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference”, George argues that despite the seemingly ceaseless flow of bad news, there are many reasons to be hopeful and feel inspired every day. As one of AimHi Earth’s co-founders puts it: “Hopelessness gets us nowhere, hopelessness is something that is forced upon us by a dysfunctional system”.
Vickesh also references the growth of climate communities around the world as a key tool for those wanting to get involved with climate action.
“Climate communities are growing everywhere and I believe in the power of collective action. Fridays For the Future grew from one person to a movement of tens of thousands of people around the globe. It’s easier to feel empowered when there are more people around you with the same motivation.”
George recommends this podcast by Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Towns movement, as particularly hopeful and inspiring. It’s called, "From What if to What Next" and it's all about asking the simple yet powerful question "What if...?" - encouraging us to harness the power of the imagination to create the future we want. Similarly, the My Climate Journey podcast is a great resource for hearing about solutions that are actually being applied at scale, according to Vickesh.
Concluding thoughts
Investing in our planet clearly has diverse meanings. In this blog, we’ve heard from three representatives of the Subak community.
Their responses to this year’s Earth Day theme have illustrated that working together to invest in our planet means listening to those with different realities than our own, continually educating ourselves, and combining our tools, data and resources to power up our climate action further. This blog has reminded us that positivity is key when it comes to empowering ourselves and those around us to take action on climate, whilst not denying the seriousness of the crisis we’re in.
Investing in our planet means tangible changes must be made to scale up private financial flows into climate - from removing policy blockers, to scaling up blended finance instruments, to effectively utilising financial tools such as green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. At the individual level, we can all educate ourselves (through courses such as AimHi Earth’s) on shifting our money away from financial institutions which are funding the fossil fuel industry and the destruction of nature, towards those which put regeneration at the heart of what they do.