Opportunity Green

Opportunity Green is proud to be one of Giving Green's top recommendations for climate giving, so we're excited to be joining this upcoming webinar. On December 5, our CEO Aoife O'Leary is joining a panel with Dr Dan Stein, Founder & Executive Director of Giving Green, Terra Rogers, Program Director of Clean Air Task Force and Dr. Peter Schniering, Founder of Future Cleantech Architects. Join us as we explore high-impact climate giving opportunities that align with the urgency this moment demands. 📅 When: Thursday, 5 December at 9 am PT | 12 pm ET | 5 pm GMT 🎙️ Moderator: Randall Kempner, Executive Director, Climate Philanthropy Catalyst Coalition 💡 What you’ll gain: - An understanding of 8 high-impact philanthropic strategies and 6 high-impact climate nonprofits to drive change - Expert insights spanning industries from heavy industry to  transportation to geothermal energy, and more - Practical tools to connect your giving to systems-level change 👉 Register now: https://lnkd.in/euCuKPgj #climateaction #climatephilanthropy 

🎬 New video - we speak to climate activists at #COP29 What does solidarity mean to the countries most badly affected by climate change? We talk to climate activists Thando Lukuko, Farzana Faruk Jhumu, Elizabeth Wathuti , O.G.W and Harjeet Singh at COP29 to find out in our latest video. “When we talk about solidarity we want to make sure that the most vulnerable are being represented. A lot of the time they can’t be at the space and if we can represent them fully and put their voice forward, we can make sure that the population that we serve can get a better world,” Farzana Faruk Jhumu told us. 👉 Read more in the blog here:  https://lnkd.in/eTk4UBcf 👉 Watch the video below ⤵️

During the past few weeks of climate talks at COP29, we’ve been raising awareness about the need to include international shipping and aviation in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by: 1️⃣ Publishing this op-ed in Sustainable Views detailing the UK’s role in this topic 👉 https://lnkd.in/eYDxi_uk 2️⃣ Co-hosting a webinar with Cornerstone Barristers – ‘NDCs and international aviation & shipping’ – watch the webinar video back here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ePZTaBgd So, we were especially pleased to read this blog by Liberal Democrat MP and spokesperson for Net Zero, Pippa Heylings, highlighting this exact issue. “There is still more to do: the UK's 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution does not include emissions from international aviation and shipping (IAS) in its headline target. At COP29, I supported the call for shipping and aviation to be included to tackle marine pollution and ensure industries responsible for exacerbating pollution levels and emissions are better regulated.” Well said, Pippa! Read the blog in full here: 👉 https://lnkd.in/e63KyrWM

🦋 Psst! Opportunity Green is now on Bluesky! Follow us here https://lnkd.in/eb9ENSA5 to hear about our latest policy, legal and economic work. 💌 And if you're keen to get updates directly in your inbox, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eYmRzYiQ

🦋 Psst! Opportunity Green is now on Bluesky! Find us at https://lnkd.in/e73qX3FH to hear about our latest policy, legal and economic work. 💌 And if you're keen to get updates directly in your inbox, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter here 👇

Here’s our CEO Aoife O'Leary speaking on a panel about aviation's social licence to grow at Aviation Carbon Events yesterday. “It was great to join this lively discussion alongside other panellists Ourania Georgoutsakou, Nikhil Sachdeva, Paul Zissermann, Tim Johnson, Dirk Singer and moderator Patrick Edmond 🇺🇦,” says Aoife. “Ultimately we agreed that while there might be roadmaps to reducing aviation's impact, the sector's emissions are still increasing at an alarming rate and this definitely puts a lot of pressure on the small part of the climate budget that we have left. We need to see much more action from regulators to curb aviation's excesses.” The event continues today – follow #AviationCarbon for more.

🚨 New blog! 🚨 5 reasons why shipping is overtaking aviation in the climate finance race after COP29 Our CEO Aoife O'Leary is back from #COP29. Her main takeaway? That aviation is undoubtedly falling short when it comes to climate finance. "What was incredibly striking was the lack of engagement from the aviation industry in comparison to the shipping industry," she says. "Admittedly, shipping still has a long way to go when it comes to climate finance, and yet it did engage in the necessary conversations and importantly, showed willingness to consider equity as part of the conversation. This was in stark contrast to the aviation sector." Read Aoife's five reasons why aviation is lagging behind shipping when it comes to climate finance 👇 👇 #COP #climatefinance #aviation

This year’s COP has drawn to an end, and despite the dramas, a climate finance deal has finally been set. But is it enough? Our Senior Director of Climate Diplomacy, Emma Fenton, who attended the first week of #COP29 doesn’t think so. “The deal agreed at COP29 was far from what climate vulnerable countries have been calling for and is dwarfed by the scale of the need,” they say. “This means there is even more urgency for shipping to step up and agree how to price GHG emissions at the IMO negotiations in 2025. It also brings more sharply into focus the lack of ambition shown by the aviation sector in contributing to global solidarity.” Read more about different countries’ reactions to the deal here 👇 👇

🟢 Opportunity Green is proud to support the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force. Launched at COP28 to close the climate finance gap between developed and developing countries, the GSLTF is working on global levies to unlock new and innovative sources of finance. This includes levies on the shipping and aviation industries. 🛩 Our legal team recently demonstrated why there is no barrier in international law to taxing aviation fuel (https://lnkd.in/g8HYDNmu), and in January filed a submission with United Nations Human Rights showing how a kerosene tax and low air passenger levy of just $1 per flight could raise billions in climate finances (https://lnkd.in/e7eHjnwy). 🚢 We've also been working with SIDS and climate vulnerable states at the International Maritime Organization to push for an ambitious basket of midterm measures including a levy on shipping GHG emissions. Read our Policy Assistant, Aqila Kiani Indra's blog on the recent negotiations: https://lnkd.in/eD8HV_CY Read the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force's interim progress report published for #COP29 here: https://lnkd.in/ddcuKaQD #ClimateFinance #Taxation #Shipping #Aviation #Solidarity

The ONLY way to meet both our biodiversity targets and our decarbonisation targets for aviation and shipping is to focus on e-fuels, maximise efficiency and reduce demand in the first place. This is a hugely overlooked part of the debate on decarbonising both industries. While some of the worst biofuel offenders cannot be used to comply with the EU rules, the biofuels that are allowed still put our biodiversity targets at severe risk. Luckily there are ways to decarbonise both sectors without endangering biodiversity, and that is why the SASHA Coalition has brought industry from across the aviation and shipping industries together to focus on policy that will unlock decarbonisation - but not at the cost of our biodiversity. This is especially important in a week where BirdLife International released a report showing that the EU is falling short on it's 2030 biodiversity goals. Do the aviation and shipping industries really want to be the industries that tip us over to completely failing on those targets? If you want to be part of the industry that is tackling the twin nature and climate crises, then come and join us. DM me and I can talk you through the benefits of membership. In the meantime, read the full report 👇 P.s. in case anyone thinks we are blinded to the downsides of green hydrogen fuels, we do recognise the huge amount of additional industry-funded renewable energy that will be needed (and this is in the report). But when looking at all the fuel options holistically, e-fuels are the winners. With of course the most important exception being that the best fuel for the environment is the one you do not burn at all: efficiency and demand reduction as the real environmental winners. Anna Stratton James Wood Matt Finch Michael Liebreich Mariano Berkenwald Nanna Baldvinsdottir Scott Pendry Dominic Weeks Keith Lawless Tim Johnson Katharine Palmer Antoon Van Coillie Matteo Mirolo Cathryn Estes Cerulogy Emma Richardson Holly Attwell