People Power: Climate Action Beyond COP26
by Sonam Velani Reflecting on my time at the COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference, I’m full of optimism and gratitude this holiday season.
The greatest achievements from COP are not the posturing proclamations in the Glasgow Climate Pact, a result of 180 governments negotiating in the halls of power. Rather, the success stories are yet to come - from the relationships we built as a community of scientists, activists, civic leaders, policy experts, businesses, and investors. We’re all one people on one planet who’ve collectively made climate action our everyday mission.
It’s hard to capture two weeks of inspiring, frustrating, exhilarating, exhausting, uplifting (and every other -ing) of thoughts in a short post, but here are a few!
👩 Women must lead on climate. COP began with a “family photo” of 130 world leaders; there were 6 women in the frame. I presented about this dichotomy at the UN Goals House, The Female Quotient, and She Changes Climate - organizations cultivating the next generation of women climate leaders. Over 80% of the people displaced by climate change are women. Yet, only 22% of seats in national parliaments are women. Less than 3% of venture capital goes to women building climate solutions. These are the numbers that got us into this mess - 50/50 parity will get us out of it.
📈 Every company on the planet needs to act on NetZero - not in 2050, but today. 70% of the people I met said it was their first COP, especially those in business. 450 finance firms joined the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, allocating $130 trillion to green investing. It’s exciting to see this momentum, but we need to rewrite how business is done: transforming supply chains, operations, production, distribution, and consumption is difficult but doable. Money talks, but companies need to walk the walk.
🌐 We can invent our way to a 1.5 degree world, but only if the right puzzle pieces come together. Existing technologies can reduce at least 50% of the emissions targets. It means scaling innovations from the communities most impacted by climate change. It means allocating venture dollars to underrepresented entrepreneurs. It means public-private partnerships like the NYSERDA Activate Carbon Tech Initiative or the London and Partners’ Cleantech Cluster, marrying product development and policy development processes. And it means embedding sustainability in the core ethos of startups so that the Apples and Amazons of tomorrow are sustainable from day one.
🌆 Get involved in your cities, towns, and counties - because rubber hits the road at the local level. I opened a C40 Cities workshop with the fact that 75% of the urban infrastructure of 2050 is yet to be built! How we leverage climate tech solutions like heat pumps, wood buildings, recycled asphalt, or vertical farms to design our cities will have a profound influence on the livability of our communities. Vote for change.
🌊 The climate emergency is a matter of life or death for billions of people. Kenya’s delegate to COP26 told us that 2 million people are facing starvation due to a climate-caused drought. Tuvalu’s delegate said his island nation was literally sinking amid record sea level rise. Only $20B a year goes to developing countries for adaptation - this number needs to be $70B today, and will likely rise to $300B by 2030. I’ve seen the consequences of this lack of financing while working with governments from Bangladesh to Bhutan on climate adaptation and mitigation while at the World Bank - countries that did not cause the climate crisis, but now suffer from it. As developed, well-resourced nations that were built on the backs of others - we need to step it up, and fast.
👫 Young people will carry us forward. COP ended with a boisterous Fridays for Future march, led by young women activists from across the globe, all barely old enough to vote. Their homes, livelihoods, and ecosystems are being destroyed, and their voices should be at the heart of our political and business decisions. They will live with our actions.
We all have our part to play. The proverb “Many hands make light work” resonates personally as I start my own entrepreneurial adventures with the incredible support of the Women in Climate Tech, On Deck, and Terra.do communities (more on the “Building Something New!” headline coming soon!). We’ll address climate change through collective action, and I couldn’t be more thankful to have these many hands making my light work!
#COP26 #ClimateActionNow #WomenLeadingOnClimate #ClimateTech #VentureCapital #SustainableInvesting #ResilientCities #GreenFuture #EnvironmentalJustice #TogetherForOurPlanet
by Sonam Velani