Linda Kalcher, Executive Director of the think tank Strategic Perspectives, outlines strengths and weaknesses of the EC recommendation of reducing 90% net EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and describes opportunities and shapes of a future that is just around the corner.
Technological, economic, and environmental risks are on the rise, but it is precisely in these areas that the opportunities for building a better future lie. In an increasingly fragmented world, awareness of the need to act on climate risks is growing whilst priority for action is directed elsewhere. CMCC Principal Scientist Francesco Bosello comments on the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024.
”It was clear that our narrative had to present climate change as a problem with solutions. That’s where the idea of humanising climate risks through stories of resilience came together.” Faces of Climate Resilience, the winner of the 2023 CMCC Award, is a compelling short-documentary series showcasing the voices of individuals in some of India’s most climate-vulnerable regions. In an interview with creative producer Milan George Jacob, we discuss storytelling as a tool for effective, people-focused climate communication.
Three decades of progress in climate science meet the evolving landscape of climate communication, leaving space for the imperative shift towards ‘solutions journalism’, aligning with evolving audience preferences and the quest for comprehensive climate change narratives. Jonathan Amos, a science reporter with the BBC since 1994, offers profound insights into the evolution of climate change reporting.
Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) play a pivotal role in shaping climate research and policy. “The main progress lies in democratizing modeling capabilities across different countries, ensuring more pertinent and accurate policy insights,” says Roberto Schaeffer. The need for a shift towards national-level modeling of climate impacts, the complexity of balancing immediate costs with long-term benefits at the policy level, and the representation gap between countries, are at the core of the current discussion around climate modeling.
“CMCC’s strategy aligns with the state of science and society today”. CMCC Scientific Director Giulio Boccaletti comments on the outcome of COP28 in Dubai, where our scientists were engaged in many topics, ranging from adaptation to loss & damage, land use and the science-policy interface. The growing need for integrated scientific knowledge, the intertwining of the climate and socio-economic systems, the ever-closer integration of adaptation and mitigation, and the opportunities arising from machine learning and available data: the points that emerge from COP28 are at the heart of the CMCC strategy.
A Just Transition goes hand in hand with Green Jobs, which in turn require a new generation of skilled laborers who are trained to deal with the demands of a changing world. “The issue of new skills cannot be separated from the topic of education. Education needs to be tailored to meet the demands of a changing world,” says CMCC Researcher and Director of the Future Earth Research School (FERS) Giulia Galluccio.
The Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector is playing a pivotal role in the ongoing climate discussions at COP28, constituting not only a significant contribution to climate change but also possessing substantial potential for its mitigation.
The loss and damage fund has been established, and initial pledges have been made, but how much money should be directed into it and how should it be organized? Massimo Tavoni, director of the CMCC-RFF European Institute on Economics and the Environment, explains how climate-economic science and modeling can support the loss and damage debate. The latest evidence indicates that an adequate fund should be in the order of [140-822] USD billion and that it should differ from existing funding arrangements used for mitigation and adaptation.
Cities emerge as crucial topics in climate discussions, with artificial surfaces amplifying environmental challenges and increasing health risks. From COP28, CMCC scientist Alfredo Reder emphasizes the need for city-focused high-resolution datasets and the lack of complete climate information in many developing countries, urging investments in models and datasets. As health and climate take center stage, advanced techniques, such as artificial intelligence, aid in navigating uncertainties for informed decision-making, and in tackling the lack of information to address the global information gap.
“I’m anxious to see what emerges from the Global Stocktake. Although the report on our progress has already been published, we really need to build on this and raise ambition”. CMCC scientist Lara Aleluia Reis focuses on things such as credibility, accountability and transparency as key issues that will determine the success of COP28 in delivering a more ambitious pathway that brings us closer to the well below 2°C target. How? It all starts with the Global Stocktake.
With the agreement reached on the first day of the COP28 UN Summit on the loss and damage fund, decisions were adopted about the beneficiaries, the donors, and how the fund will be structured and governed. The CMCC and IIASA researcher Elisa Calliari, member of the Italian Delegation to the UNFCCC, sheds light on one of the hot topics of COP28 and points out the issues that still have to be defined in the negotiations around ‘loss and damage’.
