Climate Solutions

We don’t have to choose between protecting nature and economic growth. Our climate podcast biodiversity episode details the economic value of nature

Some people say we face a straight choice between innovative, thriving human communities and saving the natural world. Our climate podcast biodiversity episode proves that’s not true.

When we invest in and maintain our biodiversity, we expand our way of thinking about economics. Biodiversity is our natural infrastructure. It’s just as important to economic development in the decades ahead as the infrastructure we build with concrete, steel and fibre optic cables.

Our climate podcast biodiversity episode looks at the massive contribution biodiversity makes to our economy—and demonstrates that while we’re waiting for the great innovations that will solve the climate crisis, we can slow climate change by protecting and investing in nature.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In the climate podcast biodiversity episode, you’ll find out:

·        The economic importance of protecting pollinators like bees. Pollination of crops is essential to the fruits and vegetables grown across the world. Globally, crop pollination contributes the equivalent of €150 billion every year. That’s a real, tangible value created by biodiversity with very low costs. It’s also a fun way to silence your grumpy old uncle who thinks protecting nature should take second place to economic growth.

·        There are only 50 countries in the world with a GDP bigger than those tiny little crop pollinators.

·        The combined value to the world’s economy provided by ecosystems is called ecosystem services. They contribute $125 trillion to $140 trillion a year. That’s seven times the GDP of the United States. (How do you like that, grumpy old uncle?)

·        Commercial forestry can support sustainable landscapes and foster rural economic growth and employment. Global demand for wood, renewable fibre and other forest products is growing, driven primarily by biodegradable packaging, soft tissue products and renewable energy.

·        More good news. In the EU, forests and other wooded areas account for over 40% of the land. In recent decades, afforestation has increased this area by about 0.4% a year. The actual volume of the EU’s forests is also rising. Only 60% of the annual forest growth is harvested.

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

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The blue economy must be a priority to protect the oceans from plastics and waste. Hear how you can help in our climate podcast oceans episode

Blues singers usually wail about a lover who ain’t treatin’ them right, but on this episode of the Climate Solutions podcast we sing the blues for the ocean.

Our climate podcast oceans episode looks at the unexpected ways in which we’re polluting the oceans—and the way that pollution plays a role in climate change. We also give you a checklist of things you can do to hold back the tide of pollution.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In the climate podcast oceans episode you find out:

·        What we need to do on land to save the seas

·        About 40% of the plastic that ends up in the oceans comes from trash discarded in or near rivers by the two billion people who lack waste collection services. Of all the plastic arriving in the oceans from rivers, 90% comes from just 10 rivers, mainly in Africa and Asia.

·        The oceans contain trillions of miniscule pieces of plastic, as well as giant “garbage patches,” the biggest of which, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, covers an area three times the size of France.

·        What are microplastics? Microplastics are tiny plastic pieces polluting the oceans. Microplastics account for the large majority of plastic debris on the oceans’ surfaces. Microplastics include broken-down plastic waste, synthetic fibres and beads found in personal hygiene products. They harm marine life, which mistake them for food, and they’re consumed by humans through seafood and tap water.

·        Which of the following is getting a €214 million clean-up backed by the European Investment Bank? My kitchen drain, or the Kitchener Drain, a 69-kilometre network of canals in Egypt’s Nile Delta.

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hear how developing countries are working to protect their economies—and their people—from climate change in our climate podcast development episode

To those of us in the developed world, climate action means switching to electric vehicles, taking a bike or public transport… Or maybe eating tofu, but let’s not go there.

These are very important things to do, but they’re also what some people call “First World problems”. In the developing world, climate action means building better roads.

Developing countries need better roads to protect them against the disastrous human and economic effects of climate change that occur when roads are flooded, covered by landslides or interrupted by unusable bridges. This adaptation to climate change ensures that infrastructure and people are better prepared to cope with extreme weather and protected from its consequences.

This episode of the Climate Solutions podcast tells you what adaptation is and gives you concrete examples of how it works in projects financed by the European Investment Bank, the EU bank, in countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In this episode you’ll find out:

·        What is climate adaptation? Climate adaptation moderates harm or finds beneficial opportunities that result from changes in natural or human systems caused by actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects. (You can hear some more about adaptation in episode one of Climate Solutions, which is on urban development and looks at how your city is fighting climate change with adaptation projects.)

·        How long are roads meant to last? Roads are built to last from 20 to 50 years and to withstand extreme weather events that occur only once in 50 to 100 years. Climate change means that these events will become more severe and more frequent. That’s a problem in developing countries, because design and maintenance of roads are sometimes underfunded and are not always based on recent extreme weather predictions. At the same time, existing infrastructure may degrade faster due to harsh weather conditions, resulting in the need for earlier upgrade and replacement.

·        What is capacity building? Capacity building is the process by which skills, experience and technical and management capabilities are developed. Capacity building is often the result of the something called technical assistance, where international organisations give advice on how to prepare projects, so that they can then get funds from banks and other development institutions.

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hear how agriculture can feed a growing population and cut its impact on global warming in our climate podcast agriculture episode

We all know that climate has a big impact on our food. After all, if there’s no rain and sunshine, crops don’t grow. But increasingly we’re learning that the way we grow our food has a big impact on the climate. In fact, we’re at a crisis point.

This episode of our Climate Solutions podcast looks at some of the research and innovation under way that’s rethinking what we eat and how we produce it, so that it will have a less damaging effect on the climate.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In this episode you’ll find out:

·        How often a forest the size of Luxembourg is destroyed to make way for agriculture

·        How more efficient agriculture could cut the roughly 30% of food that is currently lost or wasted

·        How big data is helping farmers track and better target their production. You’ll hear about GPS soil sampling that allows farmers to create soil fertility maps with information about a field’s nutrients, its pH level and other data. That enables farmers to make better decisions about which seeds to plant, where to plant them, and what kinds of fertiliser to use

·        How many data points per year does an automated milking system store on a single cow? The answer is 200 000—but we’ll also tell you what they’re for

·        How many people in the world are undernourished? It’s 821 million, and we’ll lay out some solutions to help feed them

·        We’ll also have reassuring news for gastronomes. France throws away an estimated 10 million tons, or 10 billion kilos, of food each year—but the government has passed laws to ensure that restaurants and supermarkets give that food to needy people, rather than tossing it. We like that, because why, oh, why would anyone throw away French food?

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hear how urban planners are confronting the effects of global warming on our climate podcast adaptation episode.

Cities are where most of us live. They’re also where we’re most likely to be affected by climate change in the form of increasingly frequent floods and super-high temperatures, both of which are a big cost to the economy and, even worse, cause death.

So, if we can agree that we don’t want people in our cities to die faster than they already do, let’s look at what we can do to reduce the impact of climate change on urban areas.

This episode of the Climate Solutions podcast tells you about some of the big projects going on in this area, in particular in some cities you may know—Florence in Italy, and Athens in Greece, with brief stops in the Netherlands, Spain and France. At the end of the episode, you’ll bet a checklist of things you can do to help your city cope with climate change.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In this episode you’ll find out:

·        What is climate mitigation? It’s something that cuts the amount of greenhouse gas emitted, such as a wind farm or an energy efficiency renovation.

·        What is climate adaptation? This is a project that doesn’t necessarily change the amount of greenhouse gas emitted, but instead focuses on helping a city cope with the effects of climate change. We look at a project in Florence that deals with adaptation to the increasing flooding caused by climate change.

·        What’s the difference between climate mitigation and adaptation?

·        What is Green-Blue infrastructure? Green-Blue infrastructure is a city planning term that means incorporating natural landscapes into public spaces (green) and combining them with good water management (blue).

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.