Sharing is caring

Sharing is caring

"Sharing is caring, mom," Ayva says, reaching for one of my Smarties.

"You've got your own," I say, swatting her hand away.

"I know. But mine are finished, and you still have. So, sharing is caring."

"That's not how it works."

"Yes, it is," she says, grabbing a pink one and popping it into her mouth.

A few days later, she asks for a chocolate.

"Can I have a bite?" I ask.

"No."

"But I thought sharing is caring."

"That's not how it works," she says, holding out her hand for her chocolate, other hand on her hip.

I take a bite before giving it to her.

"Yes, it is."

"Heeeeey!"

I act confused.

"You helped yourself, why can't I help myself?"

"Because it's mine and I didn't say you can have."

This conversation might as well have gone down at COP15 this week, but instead of Smarties and chocolate, rich and poor nations argued about money.

The summit descended into chaos after countries from the global south walked out of talks with rich nations over who should pay to protect Earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity.

The gist of the disagreement is this:

➡️ Poor countries want a fund – similar to the loss and damage fund – to be created for biodiversity protection, and they want rich nations to erm, fund, the fund. Think of it as a huge box of Smarties - wotalotigot.

➡️ But some rich nations in Europe and the global North say other large economies, like Brazil and China (which doesn’t have to contribute to the loss and damage fund), should pay more towards biodiversity protection. I.e., They should share their Smarties.

➡️ Brazil and China are among the top five recipients of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a UN donor fund for biodiversity. And they’ll stay in the top five until at least 2026. Many believe they should become contributors, not recipients, of the fund. i.e., they have a lot of Smarties, but they don't want to share.

➡️ It hardly seems fair that China doesn’t need to contribute to the loss and damage fund – despite being among the world’s biggest carbon emitters and fastest-growing economies – and still gets a big piece of the GEF pie. But I digress from Smarties.

➡️ In the other corner, poorer nations from Africa, Asia, and Latin America argue that they need more Smarties money to fund conservation, especially since they did little to cause the climate crisis, yet their biodiversity and natural ecosystems are hardest hit. They have the fewest Smarties, they're not in a position to share, and by claiming from the GEF, richer nations might as well be helping themselves to Smarties that aren't theirs.

To China's credit , it is apparently “winning the world cup” for nature conservation:

• It has established five national parks and two national botanical gardens, and has mapped 10% of its land area for national parks.

• 90% of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74% of national key wild animal and plant populations are protected.

• Huzhou is among the six national ecologically beautiful cities and the only city in the world to be declared an “international cooperation demonstration zone of ecological civilisation”.

• In the past year, it implemented legislation around biosecurity, river protection, and wetlands conservation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said solidarity was the “only effective way" to protect biodiversity, noting that humanity lives in a community with a shared future.

Well yes, but solidarity doesn't pay the bills. Neither do Smarties.

Sharing resources does.

I’ll admit, I'm torn.

China is clearly putting its biodiversity funding to good use, but it's time to share with the little guys who don't have money to funnel into conservation projects – especially when they're spending what little money they do have recovering from and cleaning up after extreme weather events.

I'm hoping for good news to come out of the final days of COP15 negotiations, which wrap up this weekend. I'm hoping world leaders will agree to a biodiversity conservation fund. Most of all, I hope they realise that there are plenty of Smarties to go around – no matter whose they are.

Sharing is caring.

— Tarryn ✌️

This week's climate and sustainability news worth noting

🌱 Australia is overhauling its 23-year-old environment laws. The long-overdue reform aims to reverse the decline of Australia's environment. Changes include establishing a federal environmental protection agency (EPA) that will impose legally binding standards across all environmental decisions, increased protections for areas of national environmental significance, and the development of a First Nations engagement to ensure Indigenous people are fully involved in decisions. (ABC)

☢️ US scientists make a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion: For the first time ever, scientists have produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it. Fusion is the energy that powers the sun and stars, and it's expected that this achievement – described as an "engineering marvel beyond belief" – could pave the way for advances in clean power. (ABC)

🌌 Indigenous Māori people are leading an effort to certify New Zealand as a "dark sky nation", which would make it only the second country in the world to receive the designation. The three-year campaign aims to reduce light pollution to protect New Zealand's ecosystems and ensure that more people can view the Milky Way. (National Geographic)

🇵🇹 From March, Portugal will end mandatory environmental assessments for green hydrogen energy projects, solar plants that are smaller than 100 hectares, and wind farms with towers more than 2km apart. Environmentalists are concerned. (Reuters)

🇺🇦🇨🇦 Canada and Ukraine signed an agreement to increase cooperation on climate action, environmental protection, and nature conservation. (Mirage)

🇬🇧 Rewilding Britain will offer £100,000 a year to fund a project that demonstrates the most potential to upscale rewilding of terrestrial or marine environments. The organisation is pushing for major nature recovery across 30% of Britain's land and seas by 2030. The Rewilding Innovation Fund has already awarded more than £250,000 to over 20 projects that range from carbon capture to seagrass restoration to a tree seeding experiment. (Treehugger)

⛹🏽‍♀️ World Athletics, the International Biathlon Union, the International Floorball Federation, and the Swedish Floorball Federation have established the Green Approaches in Management for Enhancing Sports (GAMES) project to explore how their respective sports can adopt more practices to mitigate their impact on climate change. Meanwhile, Formula E has been ranked as the Best Total Performer from more than 300 global sports organisations in the 2022 Global Sustainability Benchmark in Sports (GSBS) annual report.

🛢 Oh, the irony. Next year’s climate change summit, COP28, will be held in the United Arab Emirates, one of the world's largest oil and gas producers. (Reuters)

A picture is worth 1,000 words

The Milky Way, seen from New Zealand.

Quote of the week: Look up

The business of ESG and sustainability

🏞 A group of 11 investment firms have launched the "Nature Action 100" campaign, which aims to identify 100 companies whose business burdens nature and offer advice on how they can reduce their impact and measure their progress. The list of 100 companies will be published next year. (Reuters)

📈 Meanwhile, the World Benchmarking Alliance launched a “nature benchmark”, assessing 400 of the world’s most influential companies in terms of their progress on nature protection and restoration. And the Global Commons Alliance launched the “Accountability Accelerator” to hold corporations accountable for delivering on their nature and climate commitments.

🌳 The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), whose framework is widely used by businesses to report on climate change, has proposed an update to its 2016 biodiversity standard. Draft changes include reporting throughout the supply chain; disclosures on the drivers of biodiversity loss, such as pollution and resource overexploitation; and biodiversity human rights impacts, such as effects on Indigenous peoples and workers. (China Dialogue)

👩🏾‍💼 From mid-2026, Norway will shut down large private Norwegian firms whose boards comprise less than 40% women. In 2005, Norway became the first country to introduce a 40% gender quota on the boards of listed companies. The new law extends the quota to unlisted companies. The proportion of women on boards in private firms is currently 20%. (Reuters)

🌡 The World Bank has launched the Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust), a global tracking system for the carbon credit market, which it hopes will speed up climate financing for developing countries. The CAD Trust will collate all project and carbon credit data and registries in one place, which the public can access for free.

⛏ Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US have signed up as founding members of the Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance, which aims to ensure that critical minerals needed to power the clean energy transition are sustainably sourced. The members will encourage industry practices that will prevent biodiversity loss, protect at-risk species, minimise pollution, and respect the rights and interests of Indigenous groups. (Carbon Pulse)

One small thing you can do

Go outside and look at the stars.

I'll leave you on this happy note...

Albert the camel sees snow for the first time.

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