Monday 7th of December
COP21, Paris
Notes for daily mission report to M
Goal of the event: bolster innovation and bring scale to the emerging green economy, lots of big fish present
Fell asleep during some speeches, but one thing caught my attention: Carbon pricing = concrete solution to achieve our carbon reduction goals
-> c.f: Bertrand’s 5th principle
Two main types:
Who is putting a price on carbon?
Still a lot of countries in the grey zone
Corporate example: Solvay (international chemical group and Solar Impulse partner) committed to reducing the CO2 intensity of its operations by 40% by 2025. One of the measures: apply, from 01/01/2016, an internal price for CO2 emissions at 25 euros per ton
“Contradictory subsidies i.e. subsidies to fossil fuels must be reconsidered in the context of carbon pricing”, Amal-Lee Amin (spoke a lot, need to check out who she works for)
Crazy numbers:
Had 3 coffees at the break to keep my eyes open at least until lunch…
And heard a guy who couldn’t lay his hands on a bottle of water joke with his friend: “The concern to save water is so high at #SIF15 that there is only Coke left in the fridges”.#EnvironmentalParadoxes would definitely be a trendy hashtag at COP21.
WiSER = Women in Sustainability, Environment and Renewable Energy (Good job with the acronym!)
Organizers: Masdar (Solar Impulse partner) + Zayed Future Energy Prize (United Arab Emirates’ international awards for energy and sustainability pioneers)
Goal: empower and inspire women to be catalysts of innovation and drivers of commercial solutions
Notes on Bertrand and André’s keynote speech:
-> N.B: education is one of the solutions against climate change that was most voted for on Future is Clean
After WiSER, I had the honor of meeting adventurers Sylvia Earle and David de Rothschild. My feet are dead but during moments like this one I find it worth it.
-> Note to self: buy bandages and pain killers
Background information I may need for the report:
Sylvia Earle:
-> a movie was made about her life and work: Mission Blue
David de Rothschild:
IMPORTANT: Sylvia is one of the Future is Clean initiators, which means she helps us find concrete solutions to tackle climate change and promote clean technologies + David will soon be one too!
Bertrand was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations for their Environmental Program (UNEP).
« This nomination is an encouragement to continue showing how many incredible things can be done with renewable energies, but also to implement more energy efficient technologies in our world », he declared.
Note to self: Remember to thank the guys I know at UNEP for their great coverage of the event
Other famous Goodwill Ambassadors: actor Ian Somerhalder, photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, singer Jack Johnson and model Gisele Bündchen
Great atmosphere at the ceremony, I managed to record a part of Executive Secretary Achim Steiner’s and Bertrand’s speeches:
-> c.f: André’s reminder on the necessity of more energy efficiency by better insulating our houses for starters
-> Are we all going to have to start eating insects??
-> What are we waiting for?
Number of coffees at end of day: 13. That better not bring me bad luck for tomorrow.
End of entry
This blog post has been originally published here.