Apolitical's 100 Climate Breakthroughs of 2023 show that the planetary solutions are here - we just have to organise better to implement them
The entity known as the Te Awa Tupua - now with legal personhood in New Zealand
One of our mantras is based on the Indonesian phrase, “Ada!” - roughly translated as “it’s here!” (see the opening chapter of Indra Adnan’s The Politics of Waking Up). The implication we carry from it is that many of the solutions we seek to a crisis-torn modernity - in climate, in technology -already exist. They’re lying around waiting for the right organisations, institutions and community structures to utilise them.
We’ve rarely seen a better demonstration of that plenitude of planet-friendly ideas and initiatives, than Apolitical’s list of 100 Climate Policy Breakthroughs for 2023. It has a preponderately US bias, but does source globally also. We thought we’d pick several from the hundred, but would encourage you to explore the rest.
India’s FAME-2 scheme to electrify transport
The second round of the “Faster Adoption of and Manufacturing of Electric” (FAME-2) scheme provides cash and subsidies for Indian cities electrifying their vehicle fleets
India’s national government is scaling up clean transport with the Faster Adoption of and Manufacturing of Electric (FAME-2) vehicles scheme. It’s a policy that subsidises states to electrify their fleets. This second round of funding provides US$1.22bn ready for investment in Indian states buying electric vehicles and building charging infrastructure.
Kolkata is planning to purchase 5,000 electric buses and electrify its ferry system by 2030. The FAME-2 scheme covered 60% of the cost of this procurement. The combined emission reductions of these new vehicles will add up to 14,086 tonnes of CO2. To encourage the use of buses, Kolkata has also designed a common mobility card. This allows people to move smoothly between different modes of transport. The first round of FAME funding subsidised 5,095 electric buses across 64 different cities and states. demand for electrifying transport across the country is growing.
Edinburgh’s green power park
Saughton Park, Edinburgh is now powered and heated by a combined ground-source heat pump and micro-hydroelectric generation.
Saughton Park is a public park, greenhouse and sporting facility in Edinburgh. It recently installed a new combined heat pump and micro-hydro system. These are able to completely power the park and its facilities with low-carbon, sustainable energy.
All sporting facilities, the local café, and the Victorian-era greenhouse are powered by the new system, which saves £18,000 in heating costs per year, as well as up to 90 tonnes of CO2 each year. The heat pump is particularly effective as it can be easily installed in the park's wide open spaces.
Heating one park may seem like a small change, but the power of this system to save money and cut emissions makes it highly replicable the world over.
Barcelona’s superblocks
Barcelona has instituted pedestrian-centric, resident-oriented urban planning known as superblocks.
Barcelona’s urban planners envision a post-car world. As of 2018, 85% of the city’s area was dedicated to private vehicles. To combat this, the city has created mini car-free neighbourhoods called superblocks.
The blocks are specifically designed as multi-use public spaces that will increase foot traffic and public green spaces. They include interventions like levelled pavements. All cars are banned in these areas, save for residents’ vehicles and deliveries.
The superblocks are proving to have both environmental and social benefits. In the Sant Antoni neighbourhood, car traffic fell by 82%, pedestrian trips rose by 28%, and streetside businesses saw greater revenues. Expanding the system to the whole city would significantly reduce emissions, mitigate the urban heat island effect, and improve public health.
Beyond superblocks, Barcelona is cracking down on car pollution. In February 2022, it imposed a 30km/h speed limit on 68% of the city’s roads.
Medical deliveries by drone in Rwanda
Instead of building new roads, Rwanda is distributing vital resources by drone and saving significant carbon emissions in the process.
Rwanda uses autonomous drones to deliver medical blood deliveries across the country. They take off from two core distribution hubs. The system is efficient and quick, and each hub can make up to 500 deliveries per day. This is important for a country like Rwanda, which has a difficult geography, a small road network, and little refrigeration infrastructure.
With the drone fleet, the mass storage of blood supplies can be made as efficient as possible without compromising the need to deliver quickly across the nation. This drone-based solution enables the well-being benefits of well-connected health infrastructure. It also avoids carbon-intensive investment in road building, growing a delivery fleet, or refrigeration units.
This is an example of an alternative, low-carbon development. It demonstrates that development doesn’t need to cause an increased carbon footprint.
Paris, a 15-minute city
Paris’ new transport system means residents can navigate the city quickly, easily, and without a car.
Cities looking to reduce emissions from their transport sectors need to encourage their citizens to do three things: drive less, walk and cycle more, and embrace public transit. To make those activities as easy as possible, Paris's mayor Anne Hidalgo is embracing a new concept of urban organisation: the 15-minute city. Conceived by urban planner Carlos Moreno, the idea is that residents can access basic amenities and social activities without having to get into a car. During France’s coronavirus lockdown, the “Paris Respire '' programme turned 45 kilometres of traffic lanes into cyclist corridors. Since the mayor's re-election, she has committed to creating an additional 10km of separated bike lanes. Other initiatives to encourage public transit include allowing people under the age of 18 to travel on public transit for free.
Bangladesh's Solar Homes Initiative
Bangladesh’s small-scale solar installations have provided carbon-free electricity to over 4 million households.
Bangladesh has used off-grid renewable energy installations to provide clean electricity to 20 million people. The Solar Homes Initiative is a national policy that installs solar panels, particularly in rural areas where grid connectivity is difficult.
Funding from the World Bank's RERED programme helped support the scheme, which was implemented through the government agency Infrastructure Development Company (IDCOL). The programme works by taking advantage of the country’s microfinance structure, offering grants to local partner organisations who are then responsible for selecting customers, offering loans, installing the system and offering maintenance.
Connecting homes to electricity has vital economic and community benefits — businesses can stay open for longer, children can complete homework after dark, and a market for appliances like TVs can be developed. It also reduced the amount of kerosene fuel used for heat, lighting, and cooking, saving 1.14 million tons of kerosene as of 2018. The investment in the programme has been huge, totalling around $696 million.
Trading Carbon for Coffee in Lahti, Finland
Currently, only about 44% of the city’s trips are sustainable. The city hopes the app and addition of cycling lanes will increase this to more than 50%.
Lahti citizens can now use personal carbon trading to pay for their morning coffee. As part of the CitiCapp project, Lahti’s sustainable mobility team created an app which gives participating citizens a weekly personalised carbon budget. The app then uses real-time tracking to measure and visualise their carbon usage. Any leftover credits can be used to buy small perks like cake, transport tickets, or a bike fix.
Other features of the project include designing smart bicycle infrastructure and an open data mobility platform to make it easier for citizens to stay within their budget. The platform acts simultaneously as an awareness campaign and a way to investigate the effects of urban carbon rationing. CitiCap was funded by the EU’s Urban Innovative Actions fund.
Green Islamic bonds in indonesia: Sukuk
Indonesia’s government has been issuing and promoting a form of Sharia-compliant finance to fund its sustainability transition.
Green Sukuk, as the bonds are known, are a form of Sharia-compliant loan where 100% of the proceeds go to financing green projects. They can be used for a variety of purposes, such as mitigation, adaptation, renewable energy generation or biodiversity enhancement.
The bonds come with a set of requirements to ensure the projects they fund are green, ranging from a rigorous project evaluation stage to ongoing emissions reporting.
Such bonds are vital in Indonesia, a country particularly vulnerable to climate change where even the capital city is being moved to avoid sea-level rise. However, Indonesia also has significant potential for the utilisation of green finance—with high potential for renewable energy generation and rainforest restoration.
Playing the game in Palermo
In the trial phase of the Italian gaming app, users reduced their carbon footprint by 40%.
An app, currently in use in six urban neighborhoods across Europe, turns preventing emissions into a game where users can reap real-life rewards. MUV — Mobility Urban Values — is a project funded by Horizon 2020, based on a pilot funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, and delivered by Palermo-based innovation lab PUSH.
The app includes a game where users gain points based on the sustainability of their actions, encouraging behaviours such as public transport or recycling. The points can then be redeemed at participating local businesses, who get to advertise on the app. The city also benefits, using the data to make smarter and more climate-centred urban planning decisions.
The testing phase of the app saw huge success; the first 2000 users saw their carbon footprint reduced by 40%. In each European neighborhood, the municipality teamed up with a private partner to roll out the game. Now, the six cities compete against each other in ‘Sustainable Mobility Tournaments’ testing different game dynamics and vying to be the most-climate friendly movers.
New Zealand’s "Rights of Nature"
New Zealand has given the legal status of personhood to the Whanganui River, acknowledging it as a living entity with its own needs, interests and rights.
In concert with local Maori lawmakers, New Zealand courts recognised the personhood of an entity known as the Te Awa Tupua. This included the Whanganui River and its tributaries, but also the wider ecological, hydrological and metaphysical elements inherent in the river system.
Two custodians, one from the local Whanganui Maori and another from the New Zealand government, have been assigned to protect the rights and interests of Te Awa Tupua.
Laws like this are important to combating climate breakdown because stable climate systems can only be regulated by functional ecological systems. Humans can control our inputs and outputs but will always rely on the wider world to moderate our climate system.
Now that Te Awa Tupua has personhood, its integrity as an actor within the wider climate is secure from degradation. New Zealand has also recognised the rights of personhood for other natural bodies, such as Te Urewera.
Oysters save the Californian coastline
Oyster reef restoration is being used to save the Californian coastline against coastal erosion and more frequent storms.
Oyster reefs help to prevent coastal erosion and absorb storm energy. These are vital services as sea level rises and increased storm frequency are becoming more common. However, these reefs have declined due to pollution, overharvesting, and coastal developments.
This new project aims to rebuild the reefs by dropping small honeycomb-like structures made of cement, sand, and crushed oyster shells for new oyster reefs to form on. The structures provide some measure of protection, but will eventually erode away. However, before they disappear, oysters colonise them, and the structures become encrusted. This creates stronger, regenerating reefs to protect the Californian coastline.
Oysters each filter over 200 litres of water every day, which reduces the turbidity of the tides. They also provide an important source of food & income. Finally, oyster reefs help restore eelgrass meadows, which are also tools against coastal erosion, but also globally important carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots.