Roles and efforts of national gov’ts and non-state actors

Cities — importance

• React quicker than gov’ts or international community

3 examples of city actions

1. London Congestion Charge 🇬🇧

2. Bosco Verticale 🇮🇹

3. Supertree Grove 🇸🇬

London Congestion Charge 🇬🇧

• 2003 — introdduced by Ken Livingstone (first London mayor)

• Later: Milan, Singapore and Stockholm introduced similar schemes

London Congestion Charge — £/vehicle entering C.London

£8/vehicle

% reduction in  💚🏠 gases in first year

13%

% increase in public transport use (especially 🚌)

37%

Bosco Verticale

• A Milano

• Residential towers that support 🌳

• Won international awards

• Lauded as future of urban 🏠 construction

Number of trees in the Bosco Verticale

800+

Supertree Grove

• Man-made tree-like vertical gardens

• 25-50m tall

• Has planting panels

• Topped w/☀ panels 

MNCs — importance

• Beginning to take a greater role

• Often forced by national gov’ts

MNCs — technology

• Expanding private renewable energy industry

• Lots of competition → innovation

MNCs — corporate social responsibility funding

• Companies have to devise social or charitable projects

Unilever (🇺🇸) — corporate social responsibility funding

• Sustainable Living Plan project to ↓ its carbon footprint

National gov’ts — importance

• No higher authority in global politics so up to nation-states to tackle CC

National gov’ts — 🇧🇷

• 2003 – Native Vegetation Protection Act

  • Aim: recover 20m hectares of vegetation in Amazon rainforest by 2036

National gov’ts — carbon/💚 taxes (2)

• 🇪🇺 – member-wide tax on carbon

• Gov’ts can provide tax breaks/reductions on less harmful purchases

  • 🌬⚙

  • ⚡️🚗

    • 🇬🇧 gov’t – grant of up to 35% of value of for buyer

  • ☀ panels

National gov’ts — 🇬🇧 gov’ts (4 actions)

1. 1956 – Clean Air Act first environmental regulation in 🇬🇧

2. 2008 – creation of DECC

3. 2008 – Climate Change Act that ratified Kyoto Protocol promises made by Labour gov’t

   • Made legal requirement for current and future gov’ts to cut UK emissions by 80% by 2050

4. 2016 – DECC merged w/Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills to form BEIS

3 🔑 individiuals

1. Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate

   • Gained global recognition, spoken at COP summits and UNGA

2. Attenborough

   • Delivered speech at 2021 Glasgow climate summit

NGOs — importance

• Pressure states into taking action

NGOs — 3 examples

1. 💚peace

2. Friends of the 🌍

3. 🌊 Conservancy

• ↑ awareness, esp at COP

NGOs — the Gates Foundation — 2 actions

• 2022 – donated $ to help small LIC farmers adapt to CC

• 2015 – established Breakthrough ⚡️ to encourage scientific innovation to ↓ 💚🏠 gas emissions

2023 — Gates Foundation budget

$8.3bn

2022 — Gates Foundation $ donated to help LIC farmers adapt to CC

$1.4bn

Technology — importance

• Allow individuals and NGOs to reach a wider audience

Technology — 2 examples

1. Streaming services

2. Social media platforms

Technology — Attenborough

• A Life on Our Planet (2020) called for decisive action on CC

  • Was streamed on Netflix and generated interest on Twitter and Instagram