Latest news with #ClimateActionWeek
Time Magazine
2 days ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
Climate Action Isn't Dead. It's Just Not Focused on the U.S.
Greetings from London. A week of interviews, events, and meetings—both on the record and behind closed-doors—at the city's Climate Action Week has left me with many reflections, but one stands out: the climate work goes on, but the U.S. is no longer at the center of the universe. That reality is evident almost just from the scale. The organizers tout 700 events and 45,000 participants spread across the sprawling London metropolis. This was the biggest London climate week yet, and the first time for many (myself included). But it was also evident in the meat of the conversations. Investors talked about opportunities outside the U.S., particularly in Asia and Europe. Climate focused executives waffled about how much of a presence they wanted to have at this year's iteration of New York Climate Week, usually an important moment on the climate calendar each September. And British officials emphasized their ability to serve as a global hub for sustainable finance. 'As investors look around the world and they look for places to put capital, I think we sit in a very good position because of what's happening geopolitically,' says Chris Hayward, policy chairman of City of London, the historic center of London, now best known as a financial hub. To get from event to event in London required dashing around the city in the quickest fashion: typically the tube subway system, consistently overheated given the unseasonably hot London temperatures. But the geographic center of the week was undeniably the City of London, the one square mile that hosts the country's premier banking and financial institutions. There's a reason for that: organizers in London see an economic opportunity in supporting the energy transition. And that's at the core of the global shift visible here in London. The companies that gathered this week have, for the most part, doubled down on efforts to make or save money with climate and sustainability initiatives—whether that's an industrial company cutting bills with energy efficiency or a financial firm creating new products to allow companies to invest in renewable power. The reality of this profit-oriented approach means the U.S. will fall behind given the policy uncertainty. The observation was underscored by data released throughout the week. A survey of business executives globally, released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Bain & Company to coincide with the event, found that large global companies are continuing to invest in green solutions—but are shifting those investments away from the U.S. toward Europe and Asia. Three quarters of surveyed companies said they were increasingly interested in focusing on those regions. Even still, that's not to say that climate work in the U.S. is dead. The report from WBCSD found that 50% of companies now have less interest in investing in climate work in the U.S. That's a striking figure when contrasted with the global picture. At the same time, it means a significant fraction of global companies continue to see potential. In background chats I had, many American business and financial sector leaders were quick to share that they continue to find opportunities to cut emissions in a way that saves them money—though several expressed fear that talking about it publicly could prompt scrutiny from the administration. 'Businesses are not giving up on the decarbonization journey,' says Peter Bakker, president and CEO of WBCSD, 'depending on where businesses are stationed, they are more or less willing to talk about it.' And I was surprised by the response to my informal, totally anecdotal poll about this year's New York Climate Week. In conversations, I asked sustainability executives how they planned to approach the gathering this year. While many said they had considered pulling out, the vast majority said that they have ultimately decided they still plan to show up—perhaps with a smaller footprint than in years past. The calibration of the message in New York this fall will be interesting, to say the least. In more than a decade on this beat, I have never felt more of a reluctance from business leaders to speak on the record. Many long standing sources preferred to talk without attribution, wary of the political consequences of speaking truthfully even while they eagerly highlighted their work to me. While that makes it more challenging to clearly tell the full story of what's happening, I suppose it's somewhat good news if your biggest concern is whether companies are still focused on capping emissions. To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter here.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE What a bloomin' liberty! Sadiq Khan is ridiculed for handing out 12,000 wildflower seeds to commuters - after saying London's Green Belt should be built on
Sir Sadiq Khan has been ridiculed for handing out wildflower seeds to commuters just weeks after announcing that London 's Green Belt should be built on. Part of his plans for Climate Action Week he launched a new Green Roots Fund to invest £12million into neighbourhoods so make them 'greener, healthier and more climate resilient'. In the video posted to X Sir Sadiq can be seen chatting to commuters and helping hand out 12,000 free seed packets, as he says: 'The benefits of nature should be for everyone and we are committed to making this a reality for everyone.' However, his comments have now been slammed by the deputy leader of the City Hall Conservatives Emma Best who labeled the move 'astonishingly hypocritical' as just weeks ago he was 'sending in the bulldozers' to London's green belt. Speaking to MailOnline, Ms Best said: 'This is astonishing hypocrisy from the Mayor and greenwashing of the highest order. 'With one hand he is commanding bulldozers to demolish a country park and with the other he is handing out flower seeds as though that balances his actions. 'Sadiq Khan says the 'benefits of nature should be for all Londoners' but clearly that excludes those whose parks and green spaces he intends to build on.' In May the Mayor used a speech to argue that brownfield site alone cannot meet the capital's needs. He suggested 'low-quality' green belt should be released to developers with conditions such as providing affordable homes and transport links. Up to now Sir Sadiq has argued against permitting the use of such land before previously-developed brownfield options have been exhausted. However, the Labour government has set a tough wider goal of building 1.5million homes over this Parliament. London has a new target of adding 88,000 new homes a year, but the city's current plan is delivering only around 40,000 a year. Meanwhile, rents in the capital rose 11.5 per cent last year and councils are spending £4million a day on temporary accommodation amid increasing homelessness. Sir Sadiq has now launched a consultation on the next version of the London Plan, which will set out his vision for development in the capital over the next two decades. City Hall has already begun a review of green belt land in line with the Government's policy of building more on low-quality parts of the green belt, so-called 'grey belt' land. However, other possibilities will now be explored for securing enough land to meet London's housing needs. Sir Sadiq speaking at the event in May said 'the truth is we're still far from fixing housing'. 'The green belt can often be low-quality land, poorly maintained and not really enjoyed by Londoners. Only around 13 per cent is made up of parks and areas that the public can access,' he said. 'So given the quality of parts of London's green belt and the extent of the housing crisis, I believe the current position is wrong, out-of-date and simply unsustainable. 'Development on carefully chosen parts of the green belt – done in the right way – would allow us to unlock hundreds of thousands of new homes. This would not only go a long way to ending the housing crisis but provide a huge boost to our economy.'
Straits Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Guided ferry tour of Southern Islands, mushroom cultivation among activities in Go Green SG 2025
Ms Grace Christine, a tour guide of the MPA Sea Exploration Tour, pointing out corals that have grown on the sides of the boardwalk on the Sisters' Island Marine Park. ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG Guided ferry tour of Southern Islands, mushroom cultivation among activities in Go Green SG 2025 SINGAPORE – Despite being the world's second-busiest container port after Shanghai, with a national record of 3.11 billion gross tons in arriving ship traffic in 2024, Singapore and its waters remain hospitable to a variety of marine and coastal wildlife. The Republic is home to a third of the world's hard coral species, half the number found in Australia's Great Barrier Reef – the world's largest coral reef system. In an exclusive and informative guided tour by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), visitors will be introduced to the maritime ports of mainland Singapore and its Southern Islands. This is just one of over 900 activities organised by the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), together with some 400 partners from across the people, public and private sectors, for Go Green SG in 2025 . There will be external activities for the public to partake in and internal ones conducted in schools and organisations. The aim is to rally the populace to make Singapore a green, liveable and climate-resilient nation. Among the activities are a mushroom cultivation workshop by Mushroom World Academy held at Vidacity , tours of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore – the island's first inland floating solar farm – and upcycling workshops by Kong Wai Shiu Hospital. An adaptive reuse of the now-defunct Loyang Primary School, Vidacity is a hub for sustainability and agri-tech start-ups, social enterprises and innovators from tertiary institutions and the community. First launched as Climate Action Week in 2020, the annual affair was revamped into a month-long campaign and rebranded as Go Green SG in 2023, after MSE saw growing interest in sustainability efforts among the public. This third edition will be launched by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at Changkat Primary School on May 16, and will run till June 29. As it partially overlaps with the school holidays, families with children can participate in the activities during and outside the school term. The 2024 Go Green SG campaign saw more than 50,000 people take part in over 400 activities, said MSE. With 2025 marking 60 years of Singapore's independence, Go Green SG will feature sustainability-related activities highlighting the nation's progress in environmental efforts over the years, as well as intergenerational bonding. MPA Sea Exploration Tour Showcasing Singapore's maritime sustainability and decarbonisation efforts, the tour begins at the Singapore Maritime Gallery at Marina South Pier. Visitors will be introduced to Singapore's rich maritime history and heritage through videos, models of ships and buildings like the five lighthouses of Singapore and its ports, and artefacts of navigation tools and ship parts still in use today. A new maritime heritage zone was also recently curated to showcase archaeological artefacts found within Singapore's waters, and its maritime legacy that well precedes its colonial history. A highlight is a repurposed 20-foot equivalent unit shipping container that has been converted into an exhibition area illustrating Singapore's evolution from manually transporting goods via gunny sacks to containerisation – the transport of large quantities of items in containers. Showcasing Singapore's maritime sustainability and decarbonisation efforts, the tour begins at the Singapore Maritime Gallery at Marina South Pier. ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG According to tour guide Grace Christine, one 20-foot equivalent unit is able to transport almost anything, with enough space to carry up to 48,000 bananas, for instance. 'Containerisation is historically significant to Singapore, because in the 1950s no other countries in our region were practising it. We were the first. Today, we are connected to more than 600 ports around the world,' she said. An hour-long ferry ride will then take participants along Singapore's southern coast to observe port operations and maritime activities, before touring some of the Southern Islands, including Pulau Tekukor, Pulau Bukom, Pulau Semakau and Pulau Jong – which at low tide exposes a coral reef six times the size of the island itself. The ferry bypasses Jurong Island and Pulau Sebarok, which is home to many industrial chemical and energy facilities. Participants will hear about Singapore's green energy and decarbonisation efforts from the tour guides. Participants will disembark at Large Sisters' Island to tour the recently revamped island. Since its reopening in October 2024, it has featured signages to educate visitors of its rich biodiversity. Some of the fauna found here include the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, kingfisher, brahminy kite, Haddon's carpet anemone, flower crab, tuskfish and reef shark. Mushroom cultivation workshop Participants will learn how to cultivate mushrooms using recyclable materials during a workshop conducted by World Mushroom Academy. ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG The workshop by Mushroom World Academy offers participants a hands-on experience at growing their own edible fungi using recyclable materials. The academy conducts workshops for the public to learn how to grow a variety of mushrooms using recyclable materials in the comfort of their homes. It also partners educational institutions like Ngee Ann and Republic polytechnics to further its research and development efforts. 'The final product is an edible and delicious mushroom that serves as excellent protein alternatives... The mushroom that participants will cultivate in this workshop is the milky mushroom, which is commonly used in masala (an Indian spice blend) ,' said academy founder William Leong. Milky mushrooms grow well in hot and humid climates, making cultivation in South-east Asia ideal, according to the academy. It has a nutty flavour with a 'meat-like bite' and is most suitable for stir-fries, curries and grilling. In the two-hour workshop, participants will be introduced to the basic science of mushroom anatomy, and the significance of waste in Singapore, in particular, cardboard waste. Cardboard is an excellent organic matter that offers mushrooms the necessary nutrients to grow since it has no chlorophyll and cannot produce energy from the sun. Understanding the extent of cardboard waste in Singapore and food insecurity globally, the people in the academy came together with a dream of tackling two issues with one stone – or rather, one cardboard. According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), Singapore generated over 1.2 million tonnes of paper and cardboard waste in 2023 but only recycled 31 per cent of it. Globally, famine affects over 200 million people today, noted the World Bank Group. Participants will learn how to create the substrate – a combination of wet, shredded cardboard, sawdust, a nutrient mixture to activate and expedite the growth of the mushrooms, and compost – which will bury a mushroom fruiting pack containing the fungi's mycelium, the vegetative part of the fungus, akin to that of a plant's root system. The substrate offers the mycelium an ideal environment to grow into mushrooms. This process takes about three to four weeks. Once the white mushrooms are harvested, the substrate mixture can be reused as compost in its entirety, and if needed, the sawdust used can be extracted and repurposed in subsequent yields of mushrooms. The substrate, a combination of wet cardboard shreds, sawdust, a nutrient mixture and compost, creates an ideal environment for the mycelium to sprout mushrooms. ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG Other mushrooms the academy has successfully cultivated using recyclable materials include the termite mushroom, wulingshen mushroom, tiger milk mushroom, lion's mane mushroom and even lingzhi mushroom, a popular medicinal mushroom used in traditional Chinese medicine. 'Our focus is on educating the public about the importance of sustainability and food security through our educational programmes... According to the NEA, Singapore has an ever-increasing rate of cardboard use. So we want to show Singaporeans a way to reuse their cardboard waste,' Mr Leong said. The public can go to the Go Green SG website on to check out the activities. Online registration for activities starts from May 12, with more being released gradually across the Go Green SG period. Here are some other activities. Visit to Sembcorp Tengeh Floating Solar Farm Explore Singapore's first inland floating solar farm to understand how Singapore overcame land constraints to support solar energy deployment today. PHOTO: SEMBCORP INDUSTRIES Explore Singapore's first inland floating solar farm at Tengeh Reservoir in a tour organised by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore and Sembcorp Industries to understand how Singapore overcame land constraints to support solar energy deployment today. Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre Singapore Discovery Tour Participants can learn how the Group integrates innovation and sustainability at its smart urban mobility hub. PHOTO: HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP At the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre Singapore, participants can learn how the Group integrates innovation and sustainability at its smart urban mobility hub. Crafting Connections: Upcycling Across Generations Upcycle old banners and fabrics into lanyards and coasters in upcycling workshops by Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital during Go Green SG 2025. PHOTO: KWONG WAI SHIU HOSPITAL Upcycle old banners and fabrics into lanyards and coasters in upcycling workshops by Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, open to participants of all ages. Ismaili CIVIC's SG60 Riverside Vibes Event The event aims to encourage intergenerational bonding and reflection on Singapore's environmental journey. PHOTO: ISMAILI CIVIC Through eco-workshops, zero-waste swaps, urban gardening and more, the event aims to encourage intergenerational bonding and reflection on Singapore's environmental journey. Participants will also get to take home native plants. Urban Farming @ Metropolitan YMCA Metropolitan YMCA welcomes persons with disabilities to its Urban Farm for tours to learn about sustainable urban food production and urban farming techniques. PHOTO: METROPOLITAN YMCA In partnership with SG Enable, Metropolitan YMCA welcomes persons with disabilities to its Urban Farm for tours to learn about sustainable urban food production and urban farming techniques. Participants will get to take home 200g of organic vegetables per harvest. Sustainable Shopping Learning Journey With WWF At FairPrice's Flagship Sustainable Store FairPrice Group, in collaboration with WWF Singapore, will be conducting guided tours at FairPrice's flagship sustainable store in City Square Mall. PHOTO: FAIRPRICE GROUP FairPrice Group, in collaboration with WWF Singapore, will be conducting guided tours at FairPrice's flagship sustainable store in City Square Mall, to educate the public about sustainable food choices, eco-labels, sustainable packaging and waste reduction. Cycle To Work Car-free Fridays MOVE&JOY awards participants points that can be redeemed for shopping vouchers when they cycle on Friday mornings from Bishan to Funan Mall, and record their journey on its app. PHOTO: MOVE&JOY To promote a healthier and greener way of commuting, MOVE&JOY will award participants points that can be redeemed for shopping vouchers when they cycle on Friday mornings from Bishan to Funan Mall, and record their journey on its app during the Go Green SG period. Fireside Chat: Building Careers for a Sustainable Tomorrow Learn how careers and artificial intelligence are reshaping sustainable practices in a candid dialogue session organised by Razer. PHOTO: RAZER Learn how careers and artificial intelligence are reshaping sustainable practices in a candid dialogue session organised by Razer. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
