Blue bonds: A market solution to the climate crisis?

Austria rolled out the KlimaTicket, an annual pass that gives the holder access to all forms of public transportation in the country, to encourage increased use of public transport with an eye toward climate change mitigation. The uptake has exceeded expectations with 134,000 tickets sold within just the first two months, but it's still unclear what effect the program will have on the country's carbon emissions.

An increasingly popular way to attract foreign direct investment is to let the world’s wealthiest trade cash and property investments for citizenship. The $2 billion-a-year industry allows the ultra-rich to buy passports that permit visa-free travel to nearly the entire world, often with no residency requirements. Highly controversial, the industry is marked by a lack of transparency and concerns about what happens to civic ties when citizenship can be bought and sold.

In Jamaica, locally-led coral nurseries are working to restore the coral reef that have been lost to natural and manmade disasters. These organizations have small coral gardens where they can grow free of danger and when they’re big enough, are transported to a reef. With coral and fish being so codependent in the underwater ecosystem, the regrowth of coral has meant an increase of fish and fishing for the country, which many people rely on for their livelihood.

Este reportaje cuenta y explica la solución energética de Ticino, un pueblo de la provincia argentina de Córdoba. Quemando biomasa (cáscara de maní), la manicera de la localidad, que es también la empresa más grande del lugar, genera energía eléctrica que vende al Estado para abastecer al pueblo y a zonas vecinas. Esta solución beneficia a cientos de familias y permitió que durante el gran apagón nacional de 2019, Ticino continuara con luz.

After years of drought and land-clearing that left Niger with few trees left, the country now boasts about 200 million trees, which have mostly been reestablished naturally. While the effects of climate change could threaten the future of these trees, this method has also increased crop yields in villages. This model of letting trees grow back with little human influence could be implemented in other countries.

Beavers and the dams they build have been found to be tools against climate change as the planet’s temperature continues to rise. Dams slow water down and allow it to seep into the Earth, providing groundwater for humans, and also cools down both water and air temperatures. Beaver dams also create wetland ecosystems that are practically resistant to wildfires.

New Jersey schools are working to make climate education widespread by implementing general education standards that include climate change education in every grade and subject. These new education standards have been inspiring students to brainstorm solutions to climate-related issues like reducing food waste and increasing coastal resiliency. The state has also earmarked $5 million to help local teachers attend professional development sessions to teach them how to create new climate change-focused lesson plans.

After a clean air zone was created in London, where vehicles have to pay a daily fee to enter unless they meet strict pollution standards, more young students in the area began walking and biking to school.

Following the success of New York City's divestment of pension funds from fossil fuels, a process that started in 2015, other cities around the US are exploring ways to achieve net-zero portfolio emissions. In most cases, the divested pension funds have performed at least as well financially as a city’s non-divested funds.

Students at Catholic University of America in a net-zero design course are analyzing church structures and making suggestions for green improvements to address the climate crisis, reduce carbon emissions and support the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ mission to conserve energy and protect the planet. Though in its early days, the course has proven beneficial for U.S. dioceses, and students say it’s impacted the way they see architecture and design, and how it can have implications tied to the environment.