This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you a balanced view of sustainability news. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.
The latest IPCC report on the impact of climate change on people and planet makes for gloomy reading in a week already dominated by suffering humans are inflicting on other humans. But it’s also a necessary reality check. First thing to acknowledge: Some of the damage caused by human activity—such as coral bleaching—may be irreparable even if by the end of the century we drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent a global temperature rise of more than 1.5 degrees on pre-industrial levels. Adaptation will be necessary to a degree, but not all approaches offer good solutions.
There is still so much to fight for and preserve. The fierce resistance of the Ukrainian people in the face of the Russian invasion is a reminder that no matter how tough a battle may look, fighting may offer a better chance of survival than surrendering. One way to resist both climate change and a certain Russian tyrant is to wean our society off its dependency on fossil fuels.
Other stories I’m highlighting this week discuss a historic UN resolution to the end of plastic pollution and how a Colombian town lost sways of its beautiful beaches to coastal erosion.
For Climate Talks, to mark International Women’s Day, I spoke to Martina Fondi, head of forestry at Italian B-Corp Treedom, which manages the funding and the remote monitoring of tree planting projects worldwide, about agroforestry’s contribution to gender equality as well as other key sustainability goals.
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Big Read
The New Frontier In Electric Vehicles: Trains With Batteries Big Enough To Power Small Towns
Following the lead of carmakers and truck manufacturers, locomotive builders and railroads are turning to powerful batteries to curb carbon and diesel emissions, while maintaining a fuel efficiency edge.
The Progress
The largest share of greenhouse gas emitted in the fashion industry occurs in the materials’ supply chain. Next-gen materials such as recycled textiles, bio-based materials and plant-based leather can help reduce the industry’s environmental damage.
More than 170 nations across the globe have backed a historic UN resolution to end plastic pollution, with an international legally binding agreement to be in place by 2024.
The Challenges
As of mid-February, most of the U.S. is undergoing some level of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Not only does this have repercussions for wildfire risk and water shortages, it’s also a concern to farmers as they prepare for the upcoming planting season.
The beaches in Palomino, Colombia, are considered among the most beautiful in the country. But in just a few years, as property developers removed mangroves (and their sand-grabbing roots), the sea reclaimed the sand—previewing changes that are expected in beach communities worldwide.
The Other Big Read
Wildfire Season Is Year-Round. How To Keep The Lights On And Businesses Running
Climate change is causing the wildfire season to last year-round in the western U.S., prompting power companies and businesses to innovate.
Climate Talks
In the decade since its founding, Treedom has grown 3 million trees across the world. The B-Corp is growing fast, with 1 million trees planted in the last eight months, and a 10 million euro ($11 million) Series B funding round secured in October from some of Italy’s most influential business people, as well as greentech investor and former F1 driver Nico Rosberg.
Head of forestry Martina Martina, who has worked in setting up Treedom’s partnership with the NGO AMKA to support women’s involvement in agroforestry in Guatemala, talks about how the social and economic benefits of tree-planting projects can go hand in hand with environmental goals.
Treedom’s projects are mostly based in countries in Africa and Latin America. Why did you choose to focus on those regions?
We started abroad because [Treedom] founders were working on environmental projects in Cameroon, where they witnessed illegal logging and the impact of deforestation. The loss of biodiversity and climate change are particularly visible in tropical and subtropical countries, and that’s where our action is most needed.
How do you go about selecting the projects to offer those who want to fund them?
We always try to have a bottom-up and a customized approach, because different places have different environmental needs. We need to find the right solutions for the right place—the same model is not usable for, say, Honduras and Nepal. We usually discuss in-depth with our partners about logistics, tree nurseries, seedling production, drafting, water tank, timing for the program, training for the farmers, etc., etc. Those kinds of activities take quite a long time. We also usually travel a lot, even if in the past it’s been a bit difficult, it's important. Even if we have local partners there, we need to monitor both remotely and in person.
What happens if a natural disaster destroys one of your projects, as happened last summer with some of the forests that were part of companies’ carbon offsets?
We’ve already faced numerous challenges—what we do is to always try to be prepared. We don’t produce carbon credits, that’s not part of the business. We manage small-scale projects, so it's easier to take care of those activities instead of having a giant forest. We are producing extra trees in our tree nurseries. We have plenty more trees than what we are going to sell, so we can replace the trees that might die. My approach is to have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D… Whatever may happen, we have a backup solution.
What goes into pricing the planting of a tree that people need to consider before, say, planting a tree for $1?
Planting a tree is not always a good idea. Planting trees requires thinking about the right trees for biodiversity, meaning not a monoculture, not extensive plantation or other destructive activities. We never just plant trees. We are growing trees, which is a totally different approach. We are also very focused on post-planting care, cultural care, training for farmers and other kinds of benefits, like building tree nurseries—which is not something that we do just for our projects, those activities are for our partners. We want to create an ecosystem that is sustainable, both in terms of environment and of the economy. This is why we focus on agroforestry. We do not want to plant trees just to absorb more CO2; we also have social and economic benefits for the people involved.
How does this approach advance gender equality?
We work in quite a few different countries and cultures, so we are cautious in our approach—we can’t tell people what to do, that's not how it works. We need to work together. Our approach usually is to give opportunities to everyone, both men and women, which is not necessarily common in some of those countries. Trees can offer such an opportunity, because it's [seen as a] very caring kind of sector, and care work is something that is usually seen as a woman’s job. So in almost every culture, taking care of trees is something that women are allowed to do. Once they’re involved in the project, they will receive training. They will acquire skills. They will have a better diet, thanks to the trees’ fruits. Also, they're going to sell fruits in the market, so they will earn a bit of money. Education and money are usually key to help women grow and give them the opportunity to learn, and face and overcome challenges, and have more confidence. It’s a process, but in the long term, we see that something is changing.
Martina Fondi’s answers were condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.
On The Horizon
Oil tycoon Harold Hamm’s Continental is one of the companies investing in a $4.5 billion project to capture 8 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, move it across five states via a 2,000-mile pipeline, and inject it into a highly porous and permeable rock formation more than a mile beneath North Dakota farmland.
