European Climate Pact

With the UN climate conference (COP27) coming up in November and biodiversity conference (COP15) in December, this month we’re exploring how climate change is connected to biodiversity – the millions of plants, animals and other organisms that live around the world. We also look at how nature offers us solutions to fight climate change.

In addition, this month, we:

• talk to two Climate Pact Ambassadors with a special interest in biodiversity
• meet the Climate Pact Ambassador who’s innovating to make the paint industry greener
• hear from organisations making important climate pledges
• invite you to upcoming events.

Nature provides us with some powerful solutions to fight climate change. This is why protecting nature and biodiversity is a priority for the EU. Our latest article looks at the crisis facing the natural world and how we can protect it, while Italian Climate Pact Ambassador Valeria offers some tips on how we can all take care of nature in our day-to-day lives.

Read the article.

How do you transform an industry? Along with five fellow innovation engineering students, Danish Climate Pact Ambassador Sofie Winge-Petersen found a way to make the paint industry greener and less polluting. Their solution – Paint’R – could reduce the total plastic used in paint packaging by as much as 75%.

Read Sofie’s story.

Rituraj is an environmental writer, adventurer and naturalist based in India with a special interest in biodiversity. He raises awareness and encourages action on the 3 Ws – warming, water and wildlife – by working with indigenous communities, students, civil society, businesses and the media. He has personally experienced the impacts of climate change on wildlife during his travels in Antarctica and the Arctic, as well as the extreme droughts in his home country.

“While gentoo penguins were by far the most abundant around the places I visited in Antarctica, their numbers having increased due to a flexible diet, other penguin species were devastated by warming and loss of sea ice.”

Margit is a natural scientist who coordinates the Climate Pact Ambassador team in Austria. She has worked on climate change for 20 years and is particularly interested in the connection between biodiversity, environmental protection and sustainable living. Her top three lifestyle tips? Choose organically produced food, avoid fast fashion, and use public transport.

“We are the guardians of our planet and have a responsibility to maintain and protect biodiversity.”

Equipo Europa has launched a campaign called #UnÀrbolPorEuropa (A Tree for Europe), which encourages Spanish mayors to plant at least one tree in their municipality. So far, 500 mayors have joined the campaign.

The Leuven Mission City in Belgium is a new joint pledge which aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for the city of Leuven by 2030.

Austrian consultancy Next Vertriebs – und Handels GmbH has made a North Star pledge towards reducing emissions, along with committing to achieve net-zero by 2050. They want to support and enhance innovation in the field of sustainability.

The European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability (ECOLISE) is running a consultation until November to discuss ideas on regional and local development policies and community-led responses to the ecological crisis. The outcomes will be communicated to EU policy stakeholders in an online event on 28 November, providing a starting point for a wider advocacy campaign in 2023. Get involved and register for the event!

The new multi-year Open Climate Campaign from Creative Commons promotes open access to research, data, educational resources and software related to the climate crisis and preserving global biodiversity. If you’re a researcher, government employee, funder or part of an environmental organisation, find out how you can get involved.

Read more

Read more

Read more