COP29 and the US: Finding optimism in outrage

This week I am so happy to have Christiana Figueres as my guest editor. Christiana is the former Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the most indomitable and tenacious advocate for climate action I know.

For decades, she’s faced down ministers and presidents, fossil fuel lobbyists and obstructionists on her path to securing the historic Paris Agreement. COP29, the next big UNFCCC meeting, kicked off this Monday. Given the implications of the US election last week for climate and nature, I feel we all need to take a leaf from her book—myself included.

The outcome of the US election is widely seen as a major blow to global climate action. However, it cannot and will not halt the changes underway to decarbonise the global economy.

Clean energy is like a giant boulder that’s already reached its tipping point and is now rolling downhill toward a greener future. It’s got millions of hands on it, from individuals to some of the biggest countries, cities, and companies in the world. It could still be slowed by actions of governments and corporations—delays that will have serious consequences for people and planet alike—but it can’t be stopped. Gravity, history, and progress are on our side.

As you know, being a Christian is what motivated me to become a climate scientist and that is what feeds my fight. Similarly, Christiana credits the teachings of the late Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh for helping her find the path to securing the Paris Agreement, and for supporting her work bringing people together in collaborative ventures to address the climate crisis.

After leaving the UNFCCC, Christiana co-founded Global Optimism, which now runs regional regenerative retreats for climate and nature leaders in collaboration with the monastics of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village monastery in France.

Take it away, Christiana!

Good news

Since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, the growth of renewable energy has gone exponential. We are now in the midst of the biggest shift in our energy system since humans started burning fossil fuels. When we look back at this time decades from now, the energy transition we are currently experiencing will be recognized as a key marker of our societal evolution on this planet, just as the agricultural or industrial revolutions are taught today.

Transitions like this are so exciting because they stretch the limits of our capacities to innovate, they bring enormous benefits to society, and, in this case, they act as a catalyst for transformations in other sectors that also need to shift so we can keep our climate promises.

Investors have woken up to the opportunities this transition affords: this year, for the first time, investments in clean energy technologies will almost double the amount going to fossil fuels. The average cost of electricity from utility-scale solar photovoltaics fell by 85 percent between 2010 and 2020. Similarly, the cost of onshore wind decreased by 56 percent in the same period. These dramatic cost reductions have made renewables cheaper than new coal and gas in most major countries—but cost is not the only reason renewables will win. Efficiency is also on our side.

Fossil fuel technologies rose to prominence by pushing out less efficient technology and fuels—like wood and whale oil. Today, only around a third of what’s mined for fossil fuels gets converted into energy. The rest is lost due to leaks, transportation, and other inefficiencies. Renewables aren’t only healthier, faster, cleaner and more abundant. They undercut fossil fuels where they are at their weakest: their rampant and unsolvable inefficiency. Politics will not be able to stand in the way of this technological transition.

Not-so-good news

I’ve often said that where the money goes, so go the emissions, and today this remains ever true. The role of finance in underpinning a system that’s no longer serving most people is unequivocal. Today, a staggering $2.6 trillion in mostly public money is spent each year on subsidies or incentives that encourage unsustainable production or carbon-intensive consumption, the depletion of nature, or the degradation of global ecosystems. This is the equivalent of bankrolling a lifestyle that literally destroys the life-giving environment we depend upon.

The resulting damage across so many of our natural systems is now so severe that the effects have even shocked the scientists who’ve spent their lives modeling change. It’s not just heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere, it’s an overloading of our air, freshwater systems and soil with pollutants. The deepest depths of the oceans and the peaks of the highest mountains, along with everything in between—even our own bodies and brains— are now contaminated with microplastics, a kind of pollution that is so novel we don’t even know what its impact will be.

We invented and still live within an economic system in which financial capital reigns supreme. Today, our relationship with financial capital and the pursuit of profit at all costs—which promotes and rewards unsustainable overconsumption, allows financial wealth to accrue to a handful of people, and ignores the value of natural and social capital—is filled with risk and quickly diminishing returns. This is one of the deep roots of the climate crisis and, left unchecked, the cruel injustices it fosters will soon become too great to bear for the majority of people.

What you can do

The climate, nature, pollution, inequality and food crises all share the same deep root: extractivism based on extrinsic principles and actions. This extractivism does not only deplete the planet—the very soil of the Earth itself—it also depletes our human souls.

To carry forward the vital work of regenerating our planet and societies, to transform our economic system so that we can see positive changes with our own eyes, we must also regenerate what is intrinsically meaningful to each of us.

Systems change feels huge and often entirely beyond our capacities to shape. However, I believe that it is, in fact, deeply personal. The metacrisis is easily recognized extrinsically - existing outside of ourselves, but its roots are intrinsic - beginning within ourselves.

Systems change, therefore, starts with each of us, with what we prioritize, what we are willing to stand up for, and how we decide to show up in the world. We are the authors of the next chapter of humanity. We are going to need a nourishing and optimistic mindset to muster the courage necessary to transform economies so that human and planetary wellbeing come first.

It is paradoxical, but critical, that at this time of mounting stress and difficulty in the world around us that we intentionally create space to listen deeply to each other and to reflect calmly. This is how we can open the possibility of renewing our mode of engagement and collaboration.

I encourage you—especially if you are a leader in your community, company, or city—to pause right now. Many of us are in disbelief, scared, and in deep mourning. Let us honor those feelings for what they are: alert signals. We are in pain because of what we love: humanity, nature, our planet. There is nothing wrong with feeling pain for what we love. It deserves its space.

Take a deep breath and, with no distractions, think carefully and intentionally about what you will do to take care of yourself and those you love. And then start to extend that bubble of love and caring on a daily basis until you are able to contribute fully to the extraordinary changes we need to make in the world precisely under the circumstances we face.

If you’re looking for support in taking a personally regenerative approach to your climate action, the Plum Village course Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet is a powerful resource. Or you can read the fantastic book of the same name. The abbot of Plum Village also regularly records a thoughtful podcast called The Way Out is In, which is filled with invaluable teachings and guidance for being present in our world today.