How climate friendly employees can change the world
How do we go about finding out and picking the lowest hanging fruit on the carbon sucking tree? What are the most effective and urgent actions we need to take in this most challenging of times for humanity: the climate crisis?
Can it be as easy as 1–2–3? Can we soothe the climate by being a ‘climate friendly employee’?
But first: why should economists and financial advisors bother at all?
What all economists, financial advisors and analysts should know
“/../what we do in life… echoes in eternity” says hero Marcus Aurelius in the movie Gladiator (2000). That’s as true in our time as it was at the end of the Roman Empire. And it has never been more closely linked to being an eco-warrior and climate hero than it is today.
The climate desperately needs to be relieved from human strain. The UN calls it the anthropogenic effect; that is, the pressure that humans put on the Earth and its climate system, which is so fundamental to our survival. The system that’s now at a point where, in return if you like, the climate constitutes an existential threat for humans.
Last week, the United Nations’ ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’ (IPCC) released its latest IPCC report. In this report it’s made clear that we need to transform both our mindsets and our societies to get anywhere close to the 1.5 degree warmer world that the report set out to target.
The goal of limiting anthropogenic global warming to ideally 1.5 degrees, or “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, was originally set in the Paris Agreement (2015). 1.5 degrees isn’t just a random number. Thousands of scientists agree on it, and many tens of thousands of their colleagues are convinced of the scale of changes required to reach it.
We need global scale, deep and sustained cuts in carbon emissions, starting today. We need to bend the ever-increasing curve of global emissions in order to reach either the 1.5 or 2-degree targets. The most affluent parts and populations of the world have a moral responsibility — and the technical and financial resources and knowledge of how to do it and lead the way. “If Sweden fails the whole world fails”, Jeffrey Sachs was recently quoted as saying during a visit to the Stockholm School of Economics.
“The entire world must eliminate (or offset) carbon pollution by 2050”, as Jeff Goodell writes for Rolling Stone, also quoting the chief of the UN Environment Programme:
“It’s like a deafening, piercing smoke alarm going off in the kitchen. We have to put out the fire,”- Erik Solheim in The Rolling Stone, originally in the Washington Post.”
But Mr Solheim is not all downbeat. He was also heard saying:
“If we all come together and work together, there is no limit to what we can achieve on planet Earth.” — Erik Solheim, UN Environment Program
Starting with yourself — what can you do today
So what can we do if we’re going to do just one thing? Besides the obvious things that you already know and probably have a bit of a bad conscience about, you can carbon compensate more than your actual carbon footprint.
Many people forget this low hanging fruit of the carbon bubble and the tree we all depend on. Unfortunately the voluntary market for carbon compensation is just a fraction of all emissions and of mandatory carbon markets. But together we can change that. Stay tuned for how, but first here’s a bit more info.
Market failure en masse
The price paid for pollution by greenhouse gases is far too low. The ‘polluter pays’ principle hasn’t been applied to how we value a reliant climate. Most people in the richest parts of the world underestimate the power of ‘natural disasters’. Our very life form balances on a thin line called the climate. Sir Nicholas Stern (now Lord Stern), Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, and President of the Royal Economic Society, who is famous for his works on climate finance, The New Climate Economy and the Stern Review, wrote:
Climate change presents a unique challenge for economics: it is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen. — Sir Nicholas Stern (The Stern Review, 2006, viii).
To internalise externalities
Our climate crisis is a result of what economists refer to as ‘externalities’. Those need to be internalised and visualised and of course compensated for. This makes sense to economists, risk managers and business leaders. But even the market for carbon offset, as it’s called, has its flaws. The most obvious of these is that the price of polluting and destroying the climate has been far too low. So we now need to do at least four things.
Action tools for economists
Economist and policymakers therefore need to do at least four things:
- Reduce our total emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases according to the IPCC by halving them every decade, starting today.
- Carbon compensate for emissions, especially from the affluent part of the world, i.e. from people with large carbon footprints.
- Remove emissions rights from the market. Otherwise these rights are available for others to buy, as a result of buying carbon effective projects for too low a price and too high a supply.
- Removing carbon from Earth’s atmosphere on a large scale, quickly and effectively.
Toolbox for climate action for organisations and employees
Climate compensation such as We Don’ t Have Time’s ‘Climate Friendly Employees’ scheme takes into account the emissions from employees’ lifestyles. Implemented on a large scale these can make a big difference to the climate globally by direct carbon sequencing, sometimes known as ‘negative emission’; more often now known as ‘carbon neutral’, ‘carbon positive’ or ‘climate positive’ emissions.
An efficient carbon market can only exist if the price of carbon is ten times that of today’s level. The supply needs to be decreased by billions of carbon credits that must be erased from the market.
We Don’t Have Time’s ‘Climate Friendly Employees’ scheme fills the void between the mandatory and the voluntary markets. We want to make it easy for organisations to make climate positive action as fast as possible. Because as you probably know by now, #WeDontHaveTime … to talk.
In this way even small organisations that take on the challenge can have an impact. And the very little effort required also supports swift climate actions.
The process of calculating an organisation’s carbon footprint is fast, reliant and based on the UN and World Bank data for per capita emissions. This is why and how your workplace should do it too.
Therefore We Don’t Have Time conclude that:
1. Climate compensation is key
For organisations, climate compensation — also referred to as ‘climate offset’, ‘carbon offset’ or merely ‘offset’ and ‘offsetting’ — can be the key that opens a previously closed door. That door has been hiding the so-called ‘externalities’ from the financial system and from the economy.
By climate compensating, we visualise and realise the true effects of this failure to include them in the system.
The silver lining is that studies have shown that this realisation, or awakening if you like, can also serve as the catalyst for emission reductions.
When for perhaps the first time we see the world with the resources and climate system that are its very foundation, it seems that we act responsibly, not only to compensate for our fossil-intense lifestyles but also to reduce our carbon emissions.
The true cost of our lifestyles is made obvious when the polluter pays the bill — a bill which it hasn’t received before.
2. ‘Climate Friendly Employees’ means compensating for our lifestyles
Sweden has a legacy of heavy industries with big emissions of greenhouse gases. The single largest Swedish emitters are the cement and mining industries. However, most Swedish companies and organisations are small to medium sized and skewed towards services rather than imported or goods.
3. Reducing carbon emissions is a cornerstone for future generations
The climate crisis and its numerous effects are both global and local. So it’s of secondary interest where the carbon offsets are made. We urgently need to put into action the most scalable and effective methods for removing carbon from the atmosphere.
We are already experiencing some disturbing effects in a 1-degree warmer world compared to the pre-industrial period. What will our children’s world look like? Who can put into action today the intentions of world leaders signing this milestone agreement in Paris? What can we do easily and on a smaller scale, and what needs to change, you may ask.
Speculation is over, the facts are on the table
Turning the economy fossil-free needs to be done quickly and is crucial to the wellbeing of the human race, as it is for all living things on the planet.
All of this is simple logic. The world is a pretty small place, if you look at it from space; its atmosphere is as thin as the peel of an apple. Its balance nowadays is as frail as it’s still supportive of human shortcomings.
We have been writing cheques on future generations since we passed Earth’s carbon budget, many decades ago. Those cheques are starting to bounce. Nature is taking back control.
Humans have never been behind the steering wheel of Earth, even though for decades we have acted like we are.
Taking on the challenge
Since half of all Swedish greenhouse gas emissions stem from societal and individual consumption abroad, which is 80% fuelled by fossil energy sources , we have identified a huge Swedish problem to deal with.
The ‘Climate Friendly Employees’ scheme, as part of the We Don’t Have Time Climate Certificate, can do this by globally reducing more carbon than is emitted by the lifestyles of an organisation’s employees — and you can start with this today.
With one of the worlds’ most equal and advanced societies, Sweden has a solid economy, industry, an energy system that’s 90% hydrogen or nuclear driven, the world’s toughest carbon legislations and laws, and has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2045.
But to enter a low or zero-carbon lifestyle we have to make room for the transition in our own lives. That includes taking all emissions into account.
Since the last IPCC report (SR15), the scientific community, parts of the media, some business regions, states, leaders and politicians have been brave enough to call the crisis by its true name: a global emergency.
But they won’t lead if you — in other words, economists and voters — don’t show them you’re ready for that change.
If you aren’t ready today, you’d better prepare to be. Because you don’t want be considered a fossil by your children or peers.
We know the facts. We’re glad to see parts of the economy acting like they do to.
Written by: Mårten Thorslund, Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer
Proofread by: Jane Davis
Facts about ‘Climate Friendly Employees’
Facts about ‘Climate Friendly Employees’
The calculations and presentation of how We Don’t Have Time have certified Söderberg & Partners as ‘Climate Friendly Employees’ can be found here.
The pressrelease Söderberg & Partners Climate Friendly Employees can be found here.
Facts about Söderberg & Partners
Söderberg & Partners was founded in Sweden in 2004 and is an investment company that develops and renews activities within pensions, asset management, insurance, benefits and financial technology. The company is now operating in many other European countries.
Web site: www.soderbergpartners.se/
Facts about We Don’t Have Time
We Don’t Have Time is currently building the world’s largest social media network for climate action.
Together we can solve the climate crisis.
But we are running out of time.
Sign up for our newsletter at WeDontHaveTime.org.
Join the movement by reading our manifest, following the blog and taking action to battle climate change. Or simply just enjoy seeing our impact and reach develop here and here.
Another We Don’t Have Time Climate Conference will air on Earth Day 2019.
Get more videos and information about the 2018 conference here.
And please drop us a line if you want to send us your idea for a theme for a keynote, a speaker or panel member before then. See you on 22 April 2019!
Web site: www.wedonthavetime.org
