United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell warned in April that governments and business leaders have just two years to take decisive action before nature and people begin to experience worsening impacts from climate change. Days later, scientists declared that record levels of heat in the oceans were resulting in half of the world’s corals experiencing one of the worst bleaching events in history.
Two fundamental truths underscore why decisive action is needed. Firstly, the public and private sectors have thus far failed to allocate sufficient capital to either mitigate or adapt to the impending climate and nature crises.
We’re getting a preview of those crises now, from the current coral bleaching crisis to increasingly frequent droughts and wildfires, intensified storms, food insecurity, poverty, and displacement.
About the author
Lucy Holmes@holmez1
Lucy Holmes is the senior director of Blue Finance at WWF US. Lucy leads a team that focuses on influencing and engaging financial markets to redirect capital into sustainable and restorative development pathways as well as ideating innovative financial mechanisms that support WWF’s ocean conservation goals in priority seascapes.
