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Climate Emergency

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2020 was the joint hottest year on record despite a 7% drop in greenhouse gas emissions. Why? 

The average temperature across the world in 2020 was <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/2020-warmest-year-record-europe-globally-2020-ties-2016-warmest-year-recorded" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.25°C higher than pre-industrial times</a>. This is dangerously close to the 1.5°C limit set by the world nations to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and made 2020 the <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/2020-warmest-year-record-europe-globally-2020-ties-2016-warmest-year-recorded" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joint hottest year on record</a>.  This means the last six years have been the six hottest years on record and that the period from 2011-2020 was the <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/2020-warmest-year-record-europe-globally-2020-ties-2016-warmest-year-recorded" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hottest decade ever recorded</a>.
Only 2016 matched the heat recorded in 2020, however in 2016 there was a natural <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">El Niño climate event</a> that boosts temperatures. Without the added factor of this natural event in 2016, <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/2020-warmest-year-record-europe-globally-2020-ties-2016-warmest-year-recorded" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scientists predict that 2020</a> would have been the outright hottest year. 
Meanwhile, Europe saw its warmest year on record at <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/2020-warmest-year-record-europe-globally-2020-ties-2016-warmest-year-recorded" target="_blank" rel="noopener">0.4°C warmer than 2019</a>, the previous hottest year on record. The Arctic and northern Siberia also saw particularly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/08/climate-crisis-experts-2020-joint-hottest-year-ever-recorded" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extreme average temperatures in 2020</a>, with a large region 3°C warmer than the long-term average, and some locations more than 6°C warmer. This led Arctic sea ice to shrink to its <a href="http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2020/09/arctic-sea-ice-decline-stalls-out-at-second-lowest-minimum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second-lowest extent</a> on record in september 2020. 
All this occurred in the year that we saw a <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/12/3269/2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7% drop in worldwide greenhouse gas emissions</a> due to the global shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally the burning of fossil fuels released <a href="https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">34.1 billion tonnes</a> of carbon dioxide in 2020, down 2.3 billion tonnes from the previous year. The most<a href="https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> dramatic reduction</a> in emissions was seen in the transport sector, especially road traffic, with a steep dive in April when countries across the world had imposed strict limits on travel. Emissions from aviation were also reduced drastically, with a reduction of <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/global-carbon-project-coronavirus-causes-record-fall-in-fossil-fuel-emissions-in-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">75%</a> seen during the peak of COVID-19 lockdowns. At the start of December 2020, emissions from road transport and aviation were still lower than their December 2019 levels, by <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/global-carbon-project-coronavirus-causes-record-fall-in-fossil-fuel-emissions-in-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% and 40% respectively</a>. 
Why is it that in the year in which the coronavirus pandemic drove one of the largest, most dramatic drops in human CO2 emissions ever recorded, did we see an increase in warming? It&#8217;s all to do with how long CO2 remains in our atmosphere.

Throughout human history, the Earth&#8217;s climate has been changing. But the changes we are seeing now are happening much faster than they would do naturally. This is because of humans emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 
Greenhouse gases are gases that trap heat in a process called the greenhouse effect. When the sun’s energy reaches the Earth, some of it is absorbed by the Earth&#8217;s surface, and the rest is reflected back outwards. Most of this goes back into space, but some is absorbed by greenhouse gases and re-radiated back towards the Earth, causing further warming. The greenhouse effect is a natural process, without which the average temperature on the Earth would be <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/focus-areas/environment/greenhouse%20gases#:~:text=The%20natural%20greenhouse%20effect%20is,approximately%2033%20degrees%20Celsius%20cooler." target="_blank" rel="noopener">-18°C</a>. 
However, human activities are accelerating this process by putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, meaning that more heat is re-radiated back towards the Earth and leading to increased levels of warming. CO2 is the single most important greenhouse gas directly released by human activity. It is produced in high quantities by human sources and it stays in the atmosphere for a long time. This CO2 builds up in the atmosphere and continues to cause warming year after year.

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The difference between emissions and concentrations

The carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, industry processes, and deforestation is referred to as emissions. These are measured by the amount of greenhouse gas that we release into the atmosphere each year. 
The carbon dioxide that we release stays in the atmosphere for a very long time. This means that when we release more CO2 it adds to the big store of CO2 that is already there. The amount of CO2 that is actually in the atmosphere is called the CO2 concentration. It&#8217;s this store of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that traps the Earth&#8217;s heat, leading to climate change. The atmospheric CO2 concentration has increased dramatically in recent decades due to human emissions. Currently it is about <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">415 parts per million</a> (ppm).

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Each year as we emit more and more, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere gets higher and higher. But even if we stopped emitting any greenhouse gases right now, the emissions we have already released over the past 200 years would still be there to cause warming. This is because CO2 has such a long lifetime. It is estimated that <a href="https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/briefings/Short_Lived_Promise.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15-40% </a>of the increase in CO2 due to fossil fuels is expected to remain in the atmosphere for over 1000 years. 
One analogy, used by the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-impact-will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-have-on-atmospheric-co2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carbon brief</a>, is the filling up of a bath from a tap. If the tap represents CO2 emissions and the water level in the bath is the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, then reducing emissions slightly is the same as slightly turning the tap down. Water is still flowing into the bath and so the level is still rising, just a bit slower. In the same way reducing emissions slightly does not immediately reduce concentrations of CO2, it only slows down the rate of increase. The carbon dioxide humans have already emitted can remain in the atmosphere for a hundred years; some of it could last <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/06/25/covid-19-impacts-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tens of thousands of years</a>.

What effect has the COVID-19 pandemic had? 

This explains why we didn&#8217;t immediately see an effect of the drop in emissions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Although less CO2 was emitted in 2020 than in previous years, the CO2 that was emitted still added to the ongoing-build up in the atmosphere. 
One study predicted that across the whole of 2020, CO2 levels in the atmosphere would rise by <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-impact-will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-have-on-atmospheric-co2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2.48ppm</a> (parts per million). This increase is <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-impact-will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-have-on-atmospheric-co2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">0.32ppm smaller</a> than if there had been no lockdown, but it is still an increase in the total atmospheric concentration, and since warming is related to cumulative emissions, the overall amount of avoided warming will be minimal. Until net global emissions reduce to zero, CO2 will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and drive further change.

Hopefully this article has made it a bit clearer why the drop in emissions caused by lockdowns hasn&#8217;t perhaps had the impact on the climate that we may have hoped for. We need to see a continued reduction in emissions year after year, before this will start to impact significantly on the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The UK Met Office has issued a forecast that the CO2 levels in the atmosphere will pass a new milestone in 2021 &#8211; being <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/2021-carbon-dioxide-forecast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">50% higher than before the industrial revolution</a>. This not only means that we have released a massive amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but also the rate at which we have done so has increased significantly. It took over 200 years for the levels to increase by 25%, but now at just 30 years later we are approaching a 50% increase. 
Even if we reduce emissions now, it can take a while for these to have an effect on temperatures. This can seem demoralising, but it is why it is so important to act now. Our actions will take a while to impact on temperatures and there&#8217;s a certain amount of warming already baked in. We can’t allow any more warming to happen.
It is estimated that emissions need to decrease by <a href="https://www.unep.org/interactive/emissions-gap-report/2019/#:~:text=Today%2C%20we%20need%20to%20reduce,are%20ambitious%2C%20but%20still%20possible." target="_blank" rel="noopener">7.6% each year between 2020 and 2030 </a>to be on track to achieve the 1.5°C goal. Last year we roughly achieved the 7% reduction needed. This year we need to decrease 7.6% again from last year&#8217;s emissions, and then 7.6% below this in 2022 and so on. Each year must have a reduction of 7.6% on the year before that. 
So, last year showed a good start if you just look at emissions. But think about what it took for us to get there. Over 2.5 million people have now died from coronavirus, millions were out of work, car traffic in April was almost half of what it normally is, and air traffic virtually stopped completely. We need policies and action now to reduce emissions in a more stable and sustainable way.

How might we achieve the emissions reductions needed? 

We need rapid decarbonisation of the energy sector. Sadly <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-mix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">84.3% of our energy</a> still comes from fossil fuels, which release CO2 into the atmosphere. We need to rapidly transition away from these polluting energy sources and towards clean renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar and hydro energy. 
We also need a global shift towards sustainable and climate-smart agriculture. <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/food-ghg-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">26% of worldwide emissions </a>come from the agricultural sector, but by employing methods such as agroforestry, crop rotations, crop diversification, precision agriculture and many more we can ensure that enough food can be made on the same land indefinitely, without depleting our natural resources and minimising emissions. We also need policies and action to reduce deforestation and land clearance, particularly from the agricultural sector. 
Investments in industrial innovations are also needed to decarbonise more difficult sectors &#8211; such as the steel industry, and to tackle some of the open problems such as the need for better energy storage for wind and solar energy and improved electric batteries.

We all have a role to play if we are to achieve the emissions reductions needed. Bill Gates in his book <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/My-new-climate-book-is-finally-here" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘How to avoid a climate disaster’</a> wisely highlighted three key things that ordinary people can do. 
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Use your political voice &#8211; Vote for parties that put climate change on the agenda. Parties can disagree on tactics to help get to zero but it needs to be a primary goal. You can also use your voice to talk to people that you know about climate change, and bring them around to the cause, even if their general political opinions are different to yours. Maximise the power of your voice by engaging in activism and joining groups such as <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greenpeace</a>, <a href="https://friendsoftheearth.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Friends of the Earth</a>, <a href="https://fridaysforfuture.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fridays for Future</a> and <a href="https://extinctionrebellion.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Extinction Rebellion</a>.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li aria-level="1">As a consumer, make the right choices &#8211; The old saying ‘vote with your wallet’ really applies here. It&#8217;s important to buy less, and to buy well. Only buy what you really need and when you do buy, choose the most sustainable option wherever possible. As a consumer you have power. If you buy an electric car, or buy artificial meat, it drives the rate of innovation up and makes a statement that more of this is needed.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li aria-level="1">As an employee, ask your company to take action &#8211; Engage the company you work with to take more action on sustainability within the organisation and their supply chain. One specific thing you can do is investigate your pension fund, and make sure that your money is supporting green funds. Learn about our <a href="https://ecologi.com/business">carbon offset programs for businesses.</a></li>
</ul>

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Achieving the emissions reductions needed to reach net zero by 2050 and to limit warming to 1.5°C isn&#8217;t going to be easy. It will need everyone to engage with the climate crisis and get involved in solving it. But we believe that we can do it. <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan">Sign up</a> to Ecologi today to help fund the world&#8217;s best climate solutions. Together we have the power to change the world.

Updates

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At Ecologi we’re often reaching for the celebration klaxon for our community’s impact milestones, but it’s a little different this time around.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve taken on £4m ($5.7m) of investment led by <a href="https://www.generalcatalyst.com/">General Catalyst</a> to follow our dreams and grow Ecologi to the scale needed to take on climate change in a significant way.
General Catalyst has a knack for turning their investments into household names: AirBnB, Deliveroo, Snapchat, Stripe, and Monzo to name just a few.
We know there’s room for the Spotify of Sustainability, and it’s with the resources of a leading investor that we can make this a reality, in a timeframe suitable for turning the proverbial Titanic around and reversing climate change over the critical decade ahead.
Before we started Ecologi, the idea was that we’d be set up as a non-profit organisation. Our mission is altruistic and that non-profit model aligned with our vision. As half of the world’s emissions have happened within the <a href="https://ieep.eu/news/more-than-half-of-all-co2-emissions-since-1751-emitted-in-the-last-30-years">lifetime of a 30-year-old</a>, there isn’t the luxury of time to grow traditionally through donations and slower ‘organic growth’. But, it didn’t take long to understand that to achieve Spotify-level scale, then you need Spotify-level capital to fulfil our potential impact.
It’s not just a sum of money that we were looking for, but a partner who wholly understands the delicate conditions which Ecologi needs to thrive: putting the planet first; complete transparency; keeping operational costs minimal; and staying ethical (see our decision to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/withdrawing-tech-nations-net-zero-elliot-coad/">withdraw from TechNation</a>).
Amongst 50 or so investors we spoke to, it was General Catalyst who fully understood this ethical tightrope with our long term plans to raise the bar on what it means to be a social enterprise. They gave examples of supporting one of their investments to donate over <a href="https://www.warbyparker.com/buy-a-pair-give-a-pair">eight million prescription glasses</a>; they set up a non-profit fund with excess profits from an ethical investment; also they understood that the future of Ecologi should be part-owned by our community via crowdfunding &#8211; an exciting development to own a stake in Ecologi and our planet too (more details at the end of this post).

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As we approach our 2nd birthday, we enter a new chapter with Ecologi that will be characterised with scale. Up to now, everything has been done on the tightest of budgets with our wonderful but tiny team. We look forward to progressing our climate impact exponentially as we race towards our target to reduce 50% of global emissions by 2040.
There is plenty we have in store. We want to actually show you the impact you’re making through storytelling and technology. We want to support projects that rewild our planet and fund innovative carbon removal technology. We want to show you your carbon footprint in real-time. We want to make good on the opportunity that can come out of rounding up the world’s pocket money and putting it into the world’s most impactful climate solutions.
Now we can, so no excuses! Let’s grow. 🌿
From Elliot, Lucy, Alex and the team here: thank you for your part in supporting this ray of climate hope 💚

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We showed a draft of this announcement to a few of our Ecologi subscribers and friendly critics and asked them what questions they had:
What will you spend the investment on?
Now’s the time to scale up our teams to enhance the platform, grow our climate projects procurement and reporting team, and expand our marketing and partnership teams. We’ll be a company of 40-60 people over the next 12 months. 
The investment will also allow us to buy larger quantities of certified carbon offsets and tree purchases upfront meaning we can plan better, get access to some projects we’d otherwise not be able to, and sometimes access better prices.
Some of the existing staff will be now paid the going rate for their level of expertise. None of the investment is to go on bonuses or dividends. 
Will we still operate Ecologi as we have done?
Absolutely yes.
If we are to be massively successful in our objectives it’s because we took on board everything that you needed us to be.
Is the source of the investment from profits of fossil fuel or high carbon industries?
No. It’s from a combination of pension funds that make investments in technology, and previous technology company profits. 
What is the investor expecting in return?
They will be looking to make a return on their investment, multiple times the amount they put in. And this is something that we can achieve and be entirely compatible with our journey. 
At some point in our future we’ll expect to come to the end of investment rounds and have a few options to suit us: be acquired and taken under the wing of a major future sustainability company; float on the stock market and be publicly owned; or even Ecologi makes their own investments in early-stage climate projects which yield their own returns. It’s far too early to say which financing route will come into effect but be assured that it’ll be a decision made with our mission in mind.
Investors will be expecting no dividends during this journey as any profits are to be reinvested back into the company.
How is Ecologi going to stay ethical?
As we grow, we will have the resources to upgrade our <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dACvzjE5nBE1cKZBAhYzsUa7rIiLJqCWXVgY4bNS8_Q/edit#gid=1742437033">transparency docs</a> and be a lot more verbose about what we’re up to. A quick run-through of what’s coming up: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In the queue to be B Corp certified, all prep governance work is complete; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A bonafide social enterprise with mission locked into our company documents; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Increased detail on our quarterly financial reports such as director salary info; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Regular “our door is always open”-style drop-in to chat with Elliot, the CEO, over Zoom;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Lifting the lid on what we’re up to with a “Building Ecologi” blog series.</li>
</ul>
Every person on the team and now investors included knows that we have our hearts fully set on creating a company that reimagines what it is to be a social enterprise. 
It’s going to take some doing, and bear with us as we get there. But please <a href="https://ecologi.com/pages/contact">drop us a line</a> on how we’re doing, as well maybe subscribe to our new <a href="https://medium.com/building-ecologi">Building Ecologi</a> series where we’ll talk about our plans out in the open and welcome your thoughts.

And finally, we’re thinking of running a crowdfunding campaign later this year. We’d love to <a href="https://ecologi.typeform.com/to/DMMimqA9">ask you five questions</a> that should take less than a minute to answer.

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Do you remember, somewhere in the fog of 2020, that period where the pandemic had seeped into every area of our lives but its exact contours and consequences hadn’t yet been established? That point after the initial panic was over, where people had begun to accept this new reality, and had started to consider where we might go from here? Somehow, amidst the horror of news screens filled with ventilated bodies and death counts scrolling ever upward, hope began to spring. Thoughtful, poetic articles began to emerge online about the deeper meaning of this event. Humanity had been given a chance to pause, to reflect, and perhaps &#8211; against all odds &#8211; change course. There was a cautious, quasi-spiritual sense that the planet was sending us a message, as if Mother Nature had realised that humans were not going to bring themselves back from the brink and was now taking the matter into her own hands. These visions of a better society were complemented by a raft of personal resolutions towards self-improvement: goals were set and new habits were inculcated, with the aim of returning after the pandemic a better you in a better world. It was as if we were all given the opportunity to zoom out, from our own lives but also society as a whole, to decide what was really important.
This sense of optimism seemed to be supported by palpable changes in our environment. Global emissions were down 7%; flights had dropped 96%; there were dolphins in Venice! These cracks of light in the gloom sustained us, made us feel as if the pandemic was really for something (beyond, well, surviving a pandemic). That is, there seemed to be a goal we were working towards, by which we could orientate our present reality, giving it some sense. And this was important. Hope sustains us in times of difficulty. It is the voice which reminds us no pain lasts forever, that the sun also rises.

But it seems that somewhere along the way, this optimism began to give way to something else. Weariness. Disillusionment. As lockdown 2 almost imperceptibly melted into lockdown 3, as the term ‘wave’ began to lose all meaning because the Covid tide had never gone away, darker realities began to set in. Not only did we witness our governments continue to vacillate and send mixed messages, we saw huge opportunities to restructure our economy missed, the same old mistakes from the 2008 financial crisis repeated as ‘too big to fail’ industries such as aviation and steel were bailed out, with no climate-change mitigation requirements built into the rescue packages. Rather than being <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-leveller-trfn-idUSKCN21R30P" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘The Great Leveller’</a>, we saw this pandemic exacerbate existing inequalities, the wealth of the top 1% rising by $8 trillion during the pandemic whilst many ordinary people were reduced to government handouts. Working from home also removed access to an equal workspace and put increased pressure on those facing challenging circumstances in their home environment. And everywhere we looked we found ourselves adrift in a sea of plastic: the take-out diets triple-plastic wrapped to avoid contamination, the delivery packages ordered to punctuate the boredom of lockdown living, and of course the proliferation of that once unknown acronym: PPE. And perhaps most deflating of all, it turned out those dolphins had never been in Venice, that it was a piece of <a href="https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2020/03/23/sorry-but-the-dolphins-that-appeared-in-venice-is-fake-news/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fake news</a> exploiting the sense of hope in the air.
What happened here? Were we deluded to dream of a better future? Did we imagine something that never really could have been? 
No. It is never wrong to hope. And it did sustain us in those interminable lockdown months. Our error was in putting our hopes on an external event, in this notion that Covid had come to save us, as if it were some sort of geo-biological defense mechanism, the natural arc of history correcting itself. But an event can only be as significant as the responses which it generates. Which is to say, the significance of the pandemic was in the million daily acts of kindnesses which it elicited: the grocery collections for elderly and infirm neighbours, the selfless bravery of the frontline workers putting themselves and their families at risk for the greater good, the proactiveness of those who organised events and other forms of support for the most vulnerable. Without even realising it, without waiting for a sunny day where we would have the type of society that we wanted, we were building it in front of our very eyes. One based on solidarity, equality and community concern (all of which happen to be the very characteristics needed to pull us out of the climate crisis &#8211; since we are all sharing increasingly limited space and resources on this planet). What we needed wasn’t a deus ex machina to solve the problem. What we needed was to see that the world around us is a result of the values we hold as a society, and it is this we need to change. This means remembering that the same essential ties that bound us through the pandemic persist and it is along these ties that change is effected, not some grand narrative happening out there. After all, the planet doesn’t care &#8211; it is humans that will perish, not nature.

The pandemic certainly has and will create short term change. The US government has just initiated an unprecedented $1.9 trillion stimulus package which stands to halve national poverty for example. But if we forget the lessons that Covid taught us about our own ways of life, such socially-minded policies will quickly fade into memory. No cataclysm will prevent business as usual from returning. As the Cree Indian saying goes, “Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.” We cannot wait for further wildfires, droughts and floods to jostle us into wakefulness. It is only through a wave of individuals coming together into communities, into a global movement, encompassing economics, energy, agriculture, and politics, that a truly sustainable way of life will be achieved. Outward events can point us in the direction, but we must walk the path. The steps need not be huge, but we must continue to take them. Reading or sharing this article. <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan">Subscribing to offset the carbon we produce</a>. Reducing meat consumption, <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/one-small-step-for-you-one-giant-impact-for-humankind">greening our finances</a> or <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/activism-how-the-drops-inside-the-ocean-are-breaking-down-the-dam">joining a movement</a>. Every step counts. But never question that it is you who must walk those steps. Far from being a lonely journey, the more you do, the more you will find the others who are walking it with you.

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Looking for some more info on our George The Poet video? You’ve come to the right place! It tells the story of the importance of sowing seeds of hope for the future generations and inspiring people to be part of something bigger: a community, a movement, a change… 
 
Lots of work went into the creation of this video &#8211; 11 crew members were involved in the overall production, through the creativity of Bristol-based agency <a href="https://www.enviral.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enviral</a>, who helped turn around this project in just 14 days.

George The Poet was our first choice for this campaign. He’s a firm favourite of both the Ecologi and Enviral teams, and we were so excited at the possibility of working alongside him. Putting aside his ability to produce and deliver incredible spoken word pieces, and the huge body of work that he can put his name to, he is a true champion of sustainability. 
That&#8217;s why we loved working with the team at Enviral on this project; because of their storytelling abilities. They understand the importance of conveying a genuine, engaging narrative. They knew George would be able to create something amazing, which oozed purpose and which reflected the passion of our Ecologi team. 
Having a lead who truly cares about the planet was vital. We wanted to inspire viewers to take action, and we couldn’t think of anyone better to get this across than George The Poet.

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With limited time, finding a suitable location was a bit of a challenge. We knew that the audio was the lead in this film so we had to find a location away from roads and airports so we could ensure crisp sound. Whilst we can’t reveal exactly where the film was shot, the countryside between London and Bristol proved to be perfect!

The video was directed by the Envival team, a sustainability-focused agency who were stoked to be working on a campaign they were so aligned with. The full Enviral production crew was brought together for the shoot including Joss as the Director, and their camera crew, audio team and photographer.

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What we did to comply with Covid regulations

Covid is real. Whilst we&#8217;re so happy to be back on set again, it&#8217;s super important to make sure that everyone is safe and comfortable. By following the industry guidelines, ensuring that everyone wore masks, respecting social distancing, and by shooting outdoors, we were able to mitigate the risks as much as possible and ensure a safe and successful shoot.

<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">George did 12 takes over the course of just 2 hrs</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We had 11 crew on set in total</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The final video took 6 hours of colour grading to make it look perfect! </li>
</ul>

2020 was the joint hottest year on record despite a 7% drop in greenhouse gas emissions. Why?

A record breaking 2020

Basics of carbon dioxide and climate

The difference between emissions and concentrations

What effect has the COVID-19 pandemic had?

Where do we go from here?

How might we achieve the emissions reductions needed?

What can individuals do?

More posts

Ecologi, Chapter 2

There is no vaccine for the climate: connecting Covid-19 to climate change

Behind the scenes of the George The Poet video

We send good things