Climate Action

Climate change is the defining issue of our time, and we are at a critical moment. It intensifies heatwaves, droughts, flooding, wildfires and famines, while threatening to submerge low-lying countries and cities and drive more species to extinction. It also threatens food supply and food security. The Climate Change 2023 Synthesis Report of the IPCC1 highlights the unequal contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions, driven by unsustainable energy and land use, as well as consumption patterns. Human-caused climate change is already impacting weather extremes globally, leading to widespread adverse impacts, especially affecting vulnerable communities. Tackling climate change demands a paradigm shift in mitigation and adaptation measures, policy coherence, institutional arrangements, and coordination across national, regional, and local levels. Multilevel governance, including commonly used strategies to operationalize the principle of subsidiarity, is foundational to the global effort to combat climate change, recognizing that effective action requires collaboration and coordination across various levels of government, as well as with non-state actors. The principle of equity needs to be applied to the design of existing multilevel governance arrangements for addressing climate change, particularly when costs and benefits are often highly concentrated. It emphasizes the importance of considering equity in decision-making processes and the allocation of resources to address climate change effectively and fairly.

The rapid adoption of renewable energy technologies and the transition away from fossil fuels are vital for combating climate change. Achieving net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 will require much faster deployment of clean energy technologies, including wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs) and battery storage systems. This shift is fueling a sharp rise in demand for critical energy transition minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements, particularly as developing countries work to achieve universal energy access and diversify their economies. For instance, an onshore wind power plant requires nine times more mineral inputs than a gas-fired plant of the same capacity, while an EV needs six times more minerals than a conventional car. Additionally, the average mineral requirement for new power generation capacity increased by 50 per cent during the 2010s, driven by the growing share of renewables in total capacity additions. Against this backdrop, countries rich in critical mineral resources have an opportunity to unlock significant development benefits. These minerals can attract foreign and domestic investment, create jobs, and boost fiscal revenues, exports, and overall economic growth. However, quantifying the economic scale of the mining industry remains challenging, especially due to the volatility of mineral prices, which directly impact valuations.

The recent confluence of crises – the COVID-19 pandemic, violent conflicts, and climate change – has caused severe setbacks to central objectives of social development, such as poverty eradication, employment generation, inequality reduction, and building inclusive societies. People and societies in vulnerable situations have been hit the hardest by the converging crises. There are indications that shocks and crises are becoming ever more frequent, severe, and far-reaching – driven by the worsening effects of climate change, the growing probability of pandemics, growing geopolitical tensions, and increasingly dense global networks of trade, finance and transport. The effects of these converging crises can be severe and long-lasting, as they may exhaust public and private response capacities, cause economic scarring, and trap people in a cycle of poverty. The World Social Report (WSR 2024) estimates that the potential cumulative global economic output loss could be over $50 trillion in the 2020–2030 period, an indication of lost opportunities for social development. National social protection mechanisms can help to protect and further advance social development. These mechanisms, by limiting the adverse impacts of shocks and crises, especially on people in vulnerable situations, and by supporting short-term recovery, enhance longer-term resilience and foster sustainable and inclusive growth. Yet only 47 per cent of the global population and as few as 13 per cent in low-income countries, are estimated to have access to at least one social protection benefit. At the same time, converging crises may increase the cost of providing adequate and universal social protection, while also depleting public financial resources. As a result, many developing countries, including most low- and lower-middle-income countries, would find it difficult to achieve universal social protection by 2030 without additional international support

The Accelerator Lab conducted an online survey to collect data on segregation and recycling, particularly of plastic. This report highlights some key results. Results suggest that households and businesses prefer their recyclable waste to be collected at their doorsteps, instead of taking it to recycling points. Typically, this is linked to issues of accessibility (location of recycling points), affordability (perceived costs of the journey to recycling points - including time), and the existence of alternatives (including whether there is a recyclable waste collection service in place).