Exeter’s new Nature and Climate Impact Team made its debut in Davos this week during a provocative and frank panel discussion with key experts.
To an audience of business and policy leaders at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, Exeter’s new team was praised as a “clever idea” as it aims to bring science and communication together to unlock impact on climate and nature in key industry sectors.
The Team is led by Exeter’s Professor Gail Whiteman, Hoffmann Impact Professor for Accelerating Action on Nature and Climate, who explained to the moderator and journalist Nik Gowing the enormity of the challenge and urgency of what the Team is trying to achieve.
“There’s no question that we’re losing the battle,” Professor Whiteman said, “not just in terms of CO2 emissions, which continue to climb, but we’re also losing the battle in terms of narrative, language, and hearts and minds.
“As a social scientist who has spent their entire career trying to translate natural science into narratives that business and consumers and citizens understand, we just need to actually do a hell a lot of more, we need to rapidly learn and partner with each other.”
The session, entitled ‘Unleash Impact: How do we Turbocharge Action’, saw Peter Bakker, CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, deliver a keynote in which he challenged businesses to take bold action on climate and nature, explaining that solutions need to be driven at scale and that leaders must be held accountable.
Looking ahead to COP30, he said that “one big hope is that climate and nature are discussed as one”, which he said made Exeter’s Nature and Climate Impact Team a “pretty clever idea”.
The panel also heard from Katie Gilbert, Managing Director, Global and Social Issues at M&C Saatchi, who spoke engagingly about innovative communications, saying much of the language around climate and nature issues is boring and exclusive instead of values-led and “tangibly positioned in things people can envisage”.
Other panellists included Eliane Ubalijoro, Chief Executive Officer, CIFOR-ICRAF Director General of World Agroforestry, who stressed the need to be close to critical partnerships to drive impact within communities.
Dr James Grecian, Polar Scientist in Residence for Arctic Basecamp, gave a ‘science speed talk’ on how the Polar region is “ground zero for climate change”, reminding the audience that extreme climate effects impact not just humans but nature and biodiversity too.
The event also heard from leaders of the future in Arctic Basecamp youth ambassadors Storm Lewis and Kamila Camilo, who spoke movingly about embracing bold action and how, with the climate science being clear, we need to “choose courage now over complacency”.
The Nature and Climate Impact Team was made possible thanks to a generous philanthropic donation from Rosalie and Andre Hoffmann.