In an open letter to mark World Wildlife Day, leading climate experts on the Global Returns Project’s Technical Advisory Board launch the ‘50 days to make a difference’ campaign, enabling simple and effective individual action on climate change.
Notable signatories to the open letter include:
- Prof Joanna Haigh CBE, former Co-Director of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London
- Prof Rosalind Rickaby, Chair of Geology, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
- Prof Yadvinder Malhi CBE, Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford
- Dr Mamta Mehra, Research Director of the Global Council for Science and Environment
The campaign is aiming to raise £150,000 for the ‘Global Returns Portfolio’ of climate not-for-profits by Earth Day (April 22nd) which would achieve the following:
- Protect 25,510 acres of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon through Rainforest Trust, storing 7.9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent;
- Test a monitoring and evaluation protocol for Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) in 7 areas over the next year through Whale and Dolphin Conservation. This protocol could lead to the protection of over 500 IMMAs (up to 50 million km2 of the ocean’s surface);
- Allow Global Canopy to conduct 25 ‘Forest 500’ assessments of companies’ actions on deforestation risk in their supply chains and to hold 3 trainings to improve progress towards net-zero commitments;
- Plant 8,333 of the right trees in the right places through Trillion Trees;
- Fund and scale a winner of Ashden’s ‘Ashden Awards’ providing clean energy solutions to refugees and displaced people;
- Support ClientEarth’s Accountable Finance legal group in ensuring that financial institutions are regulated and held fully accountable for their environmental externalities.
