Undercurrents: August 2024
Seaweed Generation's roundup of company news and perspective on all things climate.
Blythe Taylor, Chief of Staff
We’ve been issued yet another a stark warning this week. ‘Surging seas are coming for us all’ stated António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, to the Pacific Island Forum in Tonga. The UN’s Climate Action report issued this month highlights that sea levels have risen an average of 9.4cm in the past 30 years, but the figure is as much as 15cm in the tropical Pacific. This is an area unfairly impacted by climate change, contributing little to global emissions yet witnessing firsthand the implications of rising sea levels, warming oceans and acidification.
While it was made clear at the Forum that the Pacific Islands are in ‘grave danger’, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that we’re all on the precipice of disaster. May 2024 saw 12 consecutive months of record breaking temperatures, with the global average temperature from June 2023 to May 2024, 1.63 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. You’d think this alone would have been a sobering revelation, perhaps prompting a call to action - no such luck. Not only has 2024 been a year of worrying escalation in climate change, it’s also seen industry and politicians step away from the net zero targets we so desperately need. Just this week a group of environmental and human rights organisations in Finland are suing their government for climate inaction. They argue that their government is in violation of the climate act, being on track to fall short of both the carbon-neutrality target for 2035 and climate obligations imposed by the European Union. It highlights that as individuals we’re not willing to just sit back and watch the world burn. And perhaps local actions such as this might be just what we need to make a difference. Communities holding industry and government to account. A cumulation of small steps and actions that add up to more than the sum of their parts.
As Guterres also said to the Pacific forum this is ‘a crisis entirely of humanity’s making’ - but humanity is struggling to reach a consensus about how to tackle it.
Last month in Undercurrents we looked at the role AI will have in leveraging climate and environmental monitoring data. This is one area where agreement can be reached. Data needs to play a central role in the fight against climate inaction. With data we can provide stories and evidence of change rooted in science. The more data we have, the more compelling these stories will be - and hopefully the more difficult to ignore.
Progress and Press
Our very own Chief Science Officer Professor Mike Allen and his work on hydrothermal liquefaction was featured in Hayley Benett’s article Seaweed Success in Chemistry World. Read more about how scientists and entrepreneurs are recognising the potential for seaweed to form part of a scalable and sustainable bioeconomy.