This year’s U.N. Climate Change Summit, known as COP25, opened last Monday (December 2nd) in Madrid against a backdrop of mounting urgency. In the last 12 months, the U.N.’s climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has issued two special reports raising stark warnings of the risks climate change poses to food security and the oceans.
Public concern over climate change is increasing globally, as evidenced by new international protest movements, most notably Extinction Rebellion, which is active in 72 countries. The group aims to galvanize engagement with the climate emergency through nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, marking a departure from the environmental protests of recent years, according to Rob Bailey, Director of Climate Resilience at Marsh & McLennan Advantage Insights, and Martin Young, Senior Director of Business Insights and Scenarios at World Energy Council.