Holding fossil fuels accountable

New climate laws, why we need more trees in cities, and how a four-day workweek helps fight climate change

Last week I highlighted how Iceland has a new climate president, and how, as an IPCC author, Mexico’s new president is also very aware of climate risks and the need for climate solutions (although she also supports the development of infrastructure and oil & gas that negatively impacts biodiversity and climate).

This week, I learned that two of the members of Worldwide Weather, a platform that connects broadcast meteorologists around the world to share the latest climate information, were recently appointed to government positions as well!

In Greece, meteorologist Sakis Arnaoutoglou was just elected to his country’s delegation to the EU Parliament. In Taiwan, atmospheric scientist ChiMing Peng will soon become the new minister of environment. His portfolio includes climate change, and he’s emphasized that his priorities include accelerating Taiwan's net-zero transition and “rolling out a clear carbon pricing road map to help implement President-elect Lai Ching-te's green growth strategy.”

They're not the first; in Chile, climate scientist and IPCC author Maisa Rojas Corradi has served as minister of the environment since 2022. I’d love to see this trend continue!

GOOD NEWS

In the state of Vermont, a new law will force fossil fuel companies to pay for climate-related damage. This is the first such law of its kind in the US. The Vermont legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, passed the bill, and opponents expected the governor, a moderate Republican, to veto it. But instead, Gov. Phil Scott let it become a law without his signature. “I understand the desire to seek funding to mitigate the effects of climate change that has hurt our state in so many ways,” Scott wrote in a letter.

In the UK, Edinburgh has banned advertisements for airlines, SUVs, cruise lines, and oil companies from appearing in the city. The city will ban ads for "high-carbon products and services" that "undermine the council’s commitment to tackling the climate emergency." The ban encompasses "all firms and associated sub brands or lobbying organizations that extract, refine, produce, supply, distribute, or sell any fossil fuels."

And the other week, UN Secretary General António Guterres called for a ban on fossil fuel advertising. Research has already shown that one in five premature deaths world-wide are the result of air pollution from burning fossil fuels. Let that sink in a minute – one in five deaths! So, just like with cigarettes, why should we allow the use of products with such serious health risks to be actively promoted? More of this, please!

NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS

We’ve known for a long time that lower-income neighbourhoods – in the United States, Canada, and beyond – tend to be much hotter during heatwaves than higher-income neighbourhoods in the same city. The number one reason for this is the lack of green space and tree cover, much of which is the legacy of racist zoning and lending practices stretching back a century or more.

A recent study by some of my colleagues at The Nature Conservancy compared the lack of tree cover and its health impacts in nearly 6,000 cities across the US. They found that this disparity in nature-based cooling across neighbourhoods leads to hundreds more deaths and 30,000 more doctors’ visits in neighbourhoods inhabited predominantly by people of color.

Here's the good news, though: they also found that this disparity in health outcomes due to lack of green space could be neutralized by planting 1.2 billion new trees, which would also have a cooling effect that would reduce power demand by the amount it takes to power some 150,000 homes.

As I’ve mentioned before, you can help just by switching your search engine to Ecosia: they’ve planted 208 million trees so far. And, anyone have a direct link to Mr. Beast and #TeamTrees?! They’re up to 24 million trees and we need them on this too!

WHAT YOU CAN DO

I was happy to hear of a new study out of the UK, finding that a four-day workweek has benefits for the climate. Workers reported being 22 percent more productive each day. There was also a 21 percent reduction in the number of miles driven, not to mention a reduction in the pollution associated with commuting, too. And, although not quantified, I’d bet many also experienced positive impacts on their well-being, families, and health.

In Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation has had a four-day workweek in place since the nonprofit was founded in 1990. At The Nature Conservancy, we have a “Nature Fridays” program that allows people to front-load their work Monday through Thursday, and encourages them to spend Fridays outdoors (which, as Heather McTeer Toney mentioned when she guest-edited this newsletter, is great for both your mental and physical health).

“We get a climate benefit, and people get a well-being benefit. So I’d like to see work-time reduction in the climate discourse in a much bigger way than it has been,” Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College and lead researcher at 4 Day Week Global, told Yale Climate Connections. A 10 percent drop in work hours led to an 8.6 percent drop in carbon emissions, a study co-authored by Schor in 2012 found, the BBC reported.

What can you do? Take this info to work with you and encourage them to adopt a four-day workweek or, if they can’t do that (and not everyone can), encourage them to keep flexible work policies in place, including allowing working from home where possible.