Climate change news from the ground, in a warming world Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here [[link removed]] Megan Rowling [[link removed]]

Climate correspondent

Pressure is growing on governments to ensure the green changes they need to make to curb climate change don't damage people's livelihoods and their communities, worsening already stark inequalities around the world.

Donors are starting to pour billions of dollars into helping coal-dependent emerging economies ditch coal for solar and wind power - as with the international partnership announced for South Africa at COP26, with more such deals under consideration.

Ani Dasgupta, head of the U.S-based World Resources Institute (WRI), said this new type of cooperation should be "as transparent as possible" [[link removed]].

That will enable other countries to learn from it and help ensure frontline communities affected by the shift away from fossil fuels receive their fair share and the assistance they need.

"We don't want a situation where the (just transition) deal results in the same rich people - who benefited from the past system and polluted the world - also benefiting from this transaction," he told me.

A child collecting chunks of coal looks on at a colliery while smoke rises from the Duvha coal-based power station owned by state power utility Eskom, in Emalahleni, in Mpumalanga province, South Africa, June 2, 2021. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

The growing urgency to clean up our economies and cut the climate-heating emissions they belch out has yet to spur the swift responses required on the ground - but why?

Some argue that if we just had the technology to gobble up CO2 from our factories and the air, all would be well - and we could keep on burning fossil fiels with abandon.

But a new report from consultancy firm McKinsey - and comments by top politicians and energy officials at last week's virtual World Economic Forum - point to a different view.

It's not that we don't have the right clean tech, they say, but that we're not investing anywhere near enough [[link removed]] in rolling it out at scale and speed.

"Effectively we are planning to rebuild an economy that took one to two centuries to build in the next three decades... Something of that magnitude - the scale and speed - is under-appreciated," Dickon Pinner, the global leader of McKinsey Sustainability, told our climate editor Laurie Goering.

Retired Malaysian fisherman Ilias Shafie gestures as he takes a break from planting mangrove saplings in Sungai Acheh in Penang, Malaysia December 28, 2021. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Beh Lih Yi

The challenge of getting investment where it needs to go is a problem that affects all levels of action to safeguard the planet's climate and nature, from the global to the local.

Our Malayasia-based reporter Beh Lih Yi talked to fishermen who are seeking money to expand a successful mangrove-restoration project [[link removed]] but can't meet the demands of international funders.

"We are nervous - we are fishermen and we can't commit to something we're not confident in delivering," one of the group said.

And in northern Ghana, an insurance programme [[link removed]] led by a social enterprise that uses land and crop data collected by the agriculture ministry to provide cover for about 1,360 farmers is struggling to enlist larger numbers.

"The main issue in agricultural insurance is gaining the trust of farmers," said the head of inclusive finance at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

The need to democratise access to the finance and tech that's starting to become available to keep us safe in a warming world has never been clearer.

See you next week,

Megan

Global aid deals to end coal urged to prioritise workers, transparency [[link removed]]

As South Africa wins the first international support package for a "just transition", there is a need to ensure the money reaches communities that will be hit hardest by the shift away from fossil fuels, experts say

Green transition slowed by economic and social barriers, not technology [[link removed]]

Changes in mindset and boosts in funding are key to achieving a swift transition to a climate-smart economy, researchers say

Ghana's farmers arm against freak weather with crop insurance [[link removed]]

An updated insurance programme pays out when harvests come up short, stopping farmers from falling into poverty due to drought or heavy rains

Incomes dip for South Asia's women home workers as heat rises [[link removed]]

Women who make goods like clothing and street food in slum homes are producing less amid baking temperatures and floods, hurting their fragile livelihoods, a survey finds

OPINION: How to get investors scrambling to back a green energy transition [[link removed]]

Here's a global financing plan that will get private and public investors competing to put their money into clean energy - and governments rushing for their fair share

READ ALL OF OUR COVERAGE HERE [[link removed]] Have a tip or an idea for a story? Feedback on something we’ve written? Send us an email [mailto:[email protected]] If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can subscribe here [[link removed]]. Like our newsletter? Share it with your friends.

This email is sent to you by Thomson Reuters Foundation located at 5 Canada Square, London, E14 5AQ.

Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales (no. 1082139) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 04047905). Our terms and conditions and privacy statement can be found at www.trust.org [[link removed]].

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation Climate Newsletter. If you do not wish to receive future newsletters, please unsubscribe or manage your subscriptions below.

Manage your subscriptions [[link removed]] | Unsubscribe from this newsletter [link removed]

Unsubscribe from all TRF communications [link removed]