Climate vulnerability is a measure of how climate change will affect people and ecosystems.  World Population Day is an annual UN observance highlighting the importance and urgency of population issues.

The new report finds that in the 80 most climate-vulnerable countries, population is growing on average at twice the global rate. The combination of severe climate impacts and faster growth strains governments' ability to provide basic services for climate adaptation and resilience, further aggravating climate impacts and vulnerability.

In many of the most climate-vulnerable countries, rapid population growth is linked to gender inequality, including lack of access to family planning and reproductive health services. The most climate-vulnerable countries suffer some of the worst gender inequality, undermining their  capacity for adaptation and resilience in the short-term, and fueling population growth and climate vulnerability in the long term.

The COP28 President-Designate attended a roundtable on climate solutions joined by H.M King Charles III and attended by Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London; Rt Hon. Graham Stuart MP, Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero; the Vice-Chancellors of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; and the CEOs of HSBC, AstraZeneca, OVO Energy, and Gridserve.

During London Climate Action Week, Dr. Al Jaber said, "If we are going to cut emissions by 43 percent in the next 7 years, we need a holistic ecosystem that connects policy, technology, finance and people. We need supportive policies to stimulate adoption of clean energies and incentivize decarbonization. We obviously need to apply the latest technologies rapidly and at scale. That will require finance and lots of capital across the world, and particularly in emerging and developing economies. And a critical success factor is people. We need capacity building, and skills development to train young people for the jobs of the future. Because we must deliver climate action and socio-economic opportunity at the same time."

To meet that challenge, COP28 will need to "leverage the skills, the project management experience, the project finance expertise and the technological knowhow of all relevant industries, including and in particular the oil and gas industry."

While the oil & gas industry has long been viewed "as the problem" the sector should "take this opportunity to step up, flip the script and show the world once again how this industry is an important part of the solutions we need," the President-Designate told the audience. "We need to rapidly build a new clean energy system, while comprehensively decarbonizing the system we rely on today," he said.

Dr. Al Jaber repeated his call for the oil & gas industry to "up its game, urgently decarbonize its operations and take collective action to eliminate operational emissions," based on three imperatives. These include the entire industry aligning to achieve net zero by 2050, accelerating the industry-wide commitment to zero out methane emissions, and monitoring, measuring and validating progress every step of the way.

While the automotive industry grappled with supply-chain disruptions in 2022, production and sales of battery EVs (BEVs) surged in all major markets globally. This surge coincided with substantial increases in prices for minerals critical to producing batteries, which led to price increases for both BEVs and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs), collectively referred to as plug-in EVs (PEVs). According to Guidehouse Insights, plug-in EV (PEV) sales, which reached 10.4 million in 2022 worldwide, are projected to accelerate to 57 million vehicles by 2030, a global market share of 47% of all vehicles. An increasing number of PEV batteries will eventually reach the end of their useful life and require an alternative solution to being discarded into landfills, which violates environmental goals, policies, and regulations. The latest report by Guidehouse Insights focuses on recycling as a viable solution for end-of-life PEV batteries.

"Recycling is environmentally sustainable, and it meets broad government and industry strategic goals of mitigating international supply chain and geo-political risks by decreasing reliance on material extraction and refinement dominated by a handful of countries," says Adam Winston, research analyst with Guidehouse Insights. "For companies with established sustainability goals, sourcing battery materials globally generates additional emissions by transporting raw and refined materials, so localizing production will be key to meeting sustainability goals."

Electric vehicles in construction are an emerging market. Despite this, IDTechEx has built a database of more than 100 example makes and models across seven different construction vehicle categories. However, with lots of vehicles still yet to be released, only 49 database entries have confirmed chemistry information. With Europe and China being more established markets for electric construction vehicles, conclusions about battery chemistry trends from OEMs in these regions can be made. What is obvious at this early stage is that Europe heavily favors NMC, while China has chosen LFP.  

Dedicated to ending poverty by powering developing world entrepreneurs, iDE last year pledged to go even further on cutting emissions, and reach "net zero" – not only offsetting but producing as few emissions as possible – by the end of 2030. To reach net zero, iDE will also purchase "carbon renewal credits" to offset any emissions we continue creating. Carbon renewal credits remove carbon from the atmosphere and are different from "carbon credits" which reduce or avoid emissions.

iDE CEO Lizz Ellis said the organization wanted to be a role model for contributing no net emissions, joining international efforts to contain global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. "iDE works in countries across powering rural entrepreneurs to end poverty," says Ellis. "These entrepreneurs, and the low-income communities they work in, are the least responsible for changing climate, yet are the most vulnerable to its consequences and are dealing with its impacts today. We believe everyone – governments, companies, nonprofits and individuals – has a role to play in reducing emissions, preventing the worst impacts of climate change and ensuring vulnerable people can continue to increase their incomes and improve their wellbeing."

Ellis said iDE recognized the need for reducing the negative climate impacts of its work and aimed to lead the nonprofit sector by example when it came to becoming carbon neutral and reaching net zero.

Large fertilizer applications are an effective way to maximize yield, but this can result in offsite nutrient loss, which has led to increasing regulatory pressure. The European Commission aims to reduce nutrient losses by 50% by 2030, while maintaining soil fertility for crop production. This is projected to result in an overall 20% reduction in NPK fertilizer inputs. Compounding this challenge of reduced inputs, it is well known that 25–65% of fertilizers applied to crops are not fully utilized. Fertilizer efficiency can be impacted by a great number of factors, including environmental conditions, crop management, water quality, and soil health. As growers contend with these challenges, many are turning to biostimulants to optimize their NUE and increase their return on investment in fertilizer.

Of course onlookers were keen to know who was in need of medical help. Watching from afar one person noted something wasn't quite right -- plants kept appearing/peeping out of the back of the ambulance and by the doors.

Searching for the bed and the patient in the ambulance was difficult as the back was full of plants!

"Research over many years has shown that plants improve our moods, reduce stress levels and generally help our workflow," commented Ian Drummond. "They can improve our performance and concentration plus they lessen noise by deflecting and diffracting sound."

Shirley Smith of Botanica Nurseries who has several clients in the business park and looks after their plant installations with the same care as doctors and their patients, commented, "Plants make us more productive and help our creativity as well as reduce our stress levels."

"Gardens for Good embodies our commitment to helping make organic food accessible to all," says Jyoti Stephens, VP of Mission and Strategy at Nature's Path Organic Foods. "These gardens strengthen their communities, not only by growing organic food for those who need it most but by creating spaces where people can learn and grow together."

Nature's Path Organic Foods will donate $7,500 each to the 15 deserving gardens, totaling more than $100,000. The 2023 winners were selected using a comprehensive judging process which includes: public voting, the ability to establish and maintain a garden, the compelling nature in which the garden is described, and the demonstrated need within the community.  They represent a diverse range of projects and communities, all with the common goal of sustainable, community-centered organic growing.

Before your picnic or barbecue

• Defrost meat, poultry, and seafood in the refrigerator. If you thaw by submerging in cold water or defrost in the microwave, cook the food immediately afterward.
• Never reuse marinade that touched raw foods unless you boil it first. Instead, you can set some of the marinade aside before marinating food to use for sauce later.
• Marinate foods in the fridge, not the countertop.
• Wash all produce before eating, even if you plan to peel it. The knife you use to peel it can spread bacteria into the part you eat. Produce that is pre-cut or peeled should be refrigerated or kept on ice to maintain quality and safety.
• If your picnic site doesn't offer clean water access, bring water and soap or pack moist disposable towelettes for cleaning surfaces and hands.
• Don't forget to pack a food thermometer!

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