Despite Code Red on climate change, we are running in place

by The C&C Editorial Team | Dec 16, 2021

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In our top 10 stories of 2021, Climate & Capital sheds light on why “Business as Usual” continues, and how to reimagine the way forward.

As we wrap up the year, relax a little and toast a new one, the unrelenting escalation of the climate crisis rolls on. Despite a frenzy of climate activity in 2021, including the COP26 summit, the world produced little that counts as progress against rising temperatures. Extreme weather, like the tornados that just ravaged the U.S. heartland, are a constant reminder of what we’re up against.

For insight, we offer up our top 10 stories of the year. A former BlackRock sustainability chief provides an inside view on the clash between the investment industry’s short-term goals and long-term promises, and a writer and climate futurist explains business as usual in even starker terms — what he calls “predatory delay.” Our stories featuring what one writer dubbed as climate’s “Billionaire Bois Club” and another looking at the dearth of women involved at the highest levels of climate negotiation highlight problems that prevent real climate solutions from surfacing.

But we’re not here just to play Scrooge. Our top 10 also include ways in which we are reinventing ourselves — as people and as a society. There is an Australian mining billionaire in pursuit of green hydrogen; superpowers redefining their competition around climate; entrepreneurs are bringing clean power to electrify poor villages in Africa and Asia, and a veteran climate guru reminds us all why renewable energy is so promising.

So, read on, get up to speed and then join us in 2022 as we explore what’s really helping to address the climate crisis, and what really is not.