top
Global Justice
Global Justice
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Sustainable Development Goals discussed at COP27 will spur growth at home along IRA

by Ramon du Houx
At COP27 - Elected Officials to Protect America participate in Impact-for Sustainable Development Goals Solutions Lab.

President Biden about to speak to COP27 where he highlighted his Inflation Reduction Act that has made the largest American investment climate crisis mitigation ever of close to $370 Billion.

 At COP27 - Elected Officials to Protect America participate in Impact-for Sustainable Development Goals Solutions Lab

November 15, 2022

By Ramona du Houx

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Leading politicians, and negotiators have gathered in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh to establish a way forward to ensure that nations transition from fossil fuel dependency before the planet’s climate spirals out of control and leaves devastation from extreme weather in its wake. The 2022 Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, or COP27, is the 27th annual United Nations Climate Change conference which endeavors to deliver critical action on an array of issues imperative to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience, and adapting to the inevitable impacts of the climate crisis.

“The climate crisis is killing us,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres. “It is undermining not just the health of our planet, but the health of people everywhere – through toxic air pollution, diminishing food security, higher risks of infectious disease outbreaks, record extreme heat, drought, floods and more.”

At COP27 President Joseph Biden spoke about how industrialized nations need to come together financially and with innovations to help those countries that are struggling with the impacts of the climate crisis now. The climate crisis shows how we are all connected and need to work together to tackle this global emergency.

Alex Cornell du Houx, President of Elected Officials to Protect America, speaks at COP 27 about the role elected officials can play with getting innovations that will help combat the climate crisis to the people who need them the most.

“It is our moral responsibility to help frontline communities around the globe. At home, President Biden has taken bold action with the largest investment in U.S. history in climate solutions for growth, innovation, and mitigation. Here at the Innovation Pavilion, there are exciting solutions that will accelerate a clean energy economy as we transition from our dependency on fossil fuels,” said Dominic Frongillo, Former Councilmember, Deputy Supervisor Caroline, NY, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Elected Officials to Protect America.

Elected Officials to Protect America alongside Impact-for-SDGs, Etho Capital, FullCycle and Climate + Positive Investing Alliance participated inside the Innovation Zone’s Climate Challenge Lab on November 14, 2022 as part of the “The 27 Climate Challenges of COP27.” At the event, a cross-sector discussion focused on investing through a U.N. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) lens. Leading industry experts and climate champions showcased tangible solutions that could accelerate the transition off of fossil fuels, and how innovations that exist today could help with critical needs in growing nations.

"Time is running out to close the emissions gap, and we have the solutions with the innovative technology to transition to a clean energy future.  Now is the time for America to lead the way on climate,” said Andy Katz, District Director Of East Bay Municipal Utility Alameda County, California, Elected Officials to Protect America Co-Founder.

With President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) with its historic climate investments of $370 billion, coupled with his Infrastructure Law and CHIPS for America Act, America is in a position for sustained economic growth.

“We’ve had a tremendous opportunity to learn about and discuss innovations that will help every nation. New proven technologies will enable climate solutions to take hold in locations that are hard to access around the globe. Public/private partnerships can ensure people receive the right technologies that will help them in their climate crisis struggle,” said Alex Cornell du Houx, President & Co-Founder of The Elected Officials to Protect America, Marine Combat Veteran and Former Maine state legislator. “It is an exciting time of promise as we come together for a more secure future for our planet.”

Thousands of technological discoveries came out of initial grant funding from respective governments around the globe. For example, the world wouldn’t have the internet if the American government hadn’t provided startup funds and technical assistance. In most cases public/private partnerships helps spur innovations into marketplace reality but more often than not deploying solutions can be a challenge.

“Technology can make the process of applying for and deploying public funding more efficient and easier for communities. There is a gap in the market for a policy-technology build -out to harmonize state and local governments to interact around capital available to finance some of the biggest and brightest solutions,” said Nimra Amjad Chohan, Environmental Scientist, EOPA National Climate Taskforce for IRA Implementation & Founding Member of the Climate + Positive Investing Alliance, working on a technology innovation launching at the Climate Lab (in partnership with Impact-for-SDGs). “I am funding the development tool of this gap in the market to enable large scale deployment and get finance where it needs to go. I am delighted to announce that this will be done in partnership with Elected Officials to Protect America, a non-partisan organization with over 20,000 lawmakers across the country. EOPA is supporting the Department of Energy in the Inflation Reduction Act implementation in partnership through our National Climate Taskforce of elected officials, veterans and tribal leaders.”

Clean energy investment portfolios are more easily managed than anticipated. The profits are good as well, dispelling the myth that it’s a bad investment.

“The latest climate science makes it clear that the world needs to get beyond Net Zero to Climate-Positive by 2040 (not 2050), and investors need to decarbonize even faster. The good news is that most investors can already make portfolios Climate-Positive today, and the required full Scope 1-3 portfolio climate accounting is easier than most investors expect,” said Ian Monroe, the CIO of Etho Capital and Lecturer at Stanford University.

The potential could be boundless as there are a multiplicity of problems new technologies can solve.

“The emerging space of policy-tech will truly shape the landscape as new forms of capital are released. Technology can democratize access to public funding for applicants looking to further climate solutions and deliver on some of the key SDGs and why I am investing into this new innovation. Our next phase of growth will take solutions across sector, and I am delighted to participate in the Climate Challenge Lab at COP27 inside the Innovation Zone,” said Nisaa Jetha, Global Impact Strategist, who hosted the event through Impact-for-SDGs.

The Climate Change Lab Innovation Pavilion debuted at COP27 offering an unique opportunity to share technical solutions with a world audience focused on solving the climate crisis.

“The science has been clear — we need to implement deep methane mitigation and the roll out of real assets that can reduce methane emissions across key sectors - oil and gas, agriculture and waste among them. The task now is to move private capital and create enduring pathways for private sector resources to deploy into methane-abating solutions at scale, mapped to the needs of countries in a prioritized fashion. We are leading a private sector consortium coming together to support the Global Methane Pledge and suggest upgrades to its tenets to more closely align to material methane reduction on a global basis,” said Stephan Nicoleau, the Managing Director of FullCycle.

Some of the key speakers at the Innovation zone this week were:

  • Secretary John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate,
  • John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation
  • H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, Arab Republic of Egypt
  • Børge Brende President, World Economic Forum Geneva
  • Mads Nipper, Chief Executive Officer, Ørsted Services A/S
  • Fernando González, Chief Executive Officer, CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V.
  • Mafalda Duarte, Chief Executive Officer, Climate Investment Funds
  • Brad Smith, President and Vice-Chair, Microsoft Corp
  • Antonia Gawel, Head, Climate Change, Deputy Head, Centre for Nature & Climate, World Economic Forum
  • Varun Sivaram, Managing Director and Senior Advisor, Clean Energy & Innovation, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network