Hidden Hope: The Search for Surprising Solutions at Climate Week NYC

During Climate Week, thousands of people from across the globe flocked to the Big Apple. Corporate leaders, heads of state, celebrities, scientists, communicators, activists, investors, entrepreneurs, and concerned citizens chose from upward of 600 events at cocktail bars, beaches, rooftops, hotels, and conference rooms. Attendees could choose from science fairs, high-level panels, protests, drag shows, 5k runs, and film festivals, ensuring there was something for everyone. Topics ranged from climate and biodiversity finance to delivering high-integrity carbon markets to implications on the insurance industry and the evolution of AI. 

Climate Week is a vast space, with room for everyone from the grassroots to the highest levels of national and international decision-making. This motley congregation of experts and enthusiasts represents a microcosm of the global climate scene: no one can be everywhere or do everything at once, but there is space for everyone in the solution. In fact, everyone’s effort is imperative.

The 2024 Climate Week theme “It’s Time” seems poignant: for a full year, global warming surpassed the 1.5 degree celsius increase which is widely recognized as the safe threshold for humanity. Last month represented the hottest August on the global climate record, making it the 15th-consecutive month of record-high global temperatures. Canadians experienced the loss of their homes, treasured landscapes, and even lives, while the significant financial costs of extreme weather events continued to add up. This global increase in emissions, losses, and costs – alongside record-breaking temperatures, fires, and flooding – are a clarion call for decisive action. “It’s Time” speaks to the urgency we need in the face of ever-increasing climate impacts felt by people all over the world, but it could also speak to something counterintuitive but equally vital: it’s time to embrace hope. 

Hope can come from surprising places. Climate hope, in particular, does not always look how we expect. While solutions focussed explicitly on emissions reductions are critical, there are a host of surprising solutions that can help us reach our climate goals while also contributing to Canadians’ well-being and prosperity. 

For example, Natural Climate Solutions offer hidden hope for climate through actions which have a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions, such as restoring a forest or protecting a wetland. Natural Climate Solutions represent 33% of all potential emissions reductions and can help achieve Canada’s 2030 climate targets. A landmark study estimated the mitigation potential of investing in Natural Climate Solutions in Canada at 78 megatonnes of CO2e annually, the equivalent of approximately 11% reduction in annual emissions in 2021. At the same time, these Natural Climate Solutions offer a host of social, environmental, cultural, and economic benefits, as new research from Nature United and our partner Smart Prosperity Institute will show next week.

As the Nature Investment Hub (one of Generate Canada’s Solution Spaces) lays out, scaling investment in nature through conservation finance can help us halt and reverse biodiversity loss, support community well-being, and build resilience to climate change. Conservation finance will help us realize the fivefold increase in nature that we need to see, and which will help us to reach climate targets. 

Transitioning to a circular economy also offers hidden hope, and is a solution that can help us reach net-zero (more on this next week, as we celebrate #CircularEconomyMonth). A circular economy would focus on transforming supply chains and capital flows to regenerate nature, circulate products and materials, and eliminate waste and pollution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all industries and sectors.

In buildings and construction, for example, going circular can reduce the emissions from construction materials by 38% by 2025. In agriculture, shifting to circular practices like regenerative production, eliminating food waste, and upcycling ingredients could cut food system emissions by 50% by 2025. (Check out the work our Circular Economy Leadership Canada Solution Space is leading in these areas to learn more). Plastics offer another “hidden” opportunity. According to the UNFCCC, under a business-as-usual scenario, the plastics life cycle could be responsible for as much as 19% of the global greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. Decarbonizing the plastics industry and creating a circular economy for plastics is essential to meeting Paris targets (visit our Canada Plastics Pact site for more). 

Agriculture as a whole is a third solution that is ripe for hidden hope, coming at the problem from more than one direction. We can reduce agricultural emissions that contribute to climate change, while also focussing on Climate-Smart Farming, which improves agricultural productivity and resilience while returning carbon from the atmosphere back into the soil. We have a tremendous opportunity to leverage the potential of agricultural lands to remove harmful emissions from the atmosphere, as part of a broader set of solutions (see our Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-food initiative for more on this solution). Agriculture came up throughout Climate Week, including at the World Biodiversity Summit we attended, which demonstrated that nature and climate are one agenda. 

Hidden hope is not about wishful thinking, but rather it is about looking for solutions everywhere, even in the less obvious places, and implementing ideas into action at scale. Whether we’re talking about Natural Climate Solutions, the circular economy, or climate smart farming, turning hope into action takes work. To be successful, enabling policy makes the conditions for these effective solutions. Remote, rural, and Indigenous communities need to be centered as leaders as well as direct beneficiaries in solutions. Good data and mechanisms for reporting are key to tracking progress and making smart decisions. Investment is needed to finance these solutions, from governments and philanthropy as well as from the private sector. Unlikely allies across the whole system need to collaborate to solve the wicked problems we face, as partners are doing in Generate Canada’s Solution Spaces. 

These hidden hope climate solutions require everyone playing their part, just like Climate Week comes to life because of the artist performing at a climate performance, the activist protesting to put pressure on decision-makers, the entrepreneur with a circular business pitching their venture, the corporate executive discussing ESG strategies on a panel, and the political leader following through with bold decisions. 

We each have a role to play, and can find our unique space in the solution. Whether you are rushing around New York City this week, hopping from one event to another, or rolling up your sleeves to tackle climate change from your corporate office or the laptop at your kitchen table, remember that hope comes from unexpected places. Finding your space in climate solutions goes far beyond one week, and is vital, rewarding, and lifelong work.