Foresight Staff

abstract red and blue building

It’s a wrap! The climate in 2024

As 2024 comes to a close we look back at the most important climate events, meetings, negotiations and initiatives from the last twelve months. Our research and data, articles and projects reveal a year that has been rich with developments and change in both the climate itself and what we can expect from the future.

US elections climate finance

US elections and the power to make or break climate finance

From Obama to Trump, then Biden and Trump again. The US presidents who have come and gone over the past quarter century have brought different visions and policies when it comes to climate finance. Leveraging her experience in policy analysis of international environmental and climate agreements, CMCC researcher Semercioglu Nazlicicek outlines the history of US contributions to loss and damage funding and what we can expect from a second Trump term in office.

Spreading the roots: Urban forests link cities with nature

Architects and planners are increasingly concerned with integrating green systems that ensure the well-being of urban communities into their projects. Livia Shamir, Head of the Research Department at Stefano Boeri Architetti, explains how this challenge plays out in different projects across the world and across income groups.

hands holding a smartphone

Make us immune to climate misinformation

From sensational media narratives to conspiracy theories, the impact of misinformation on climate change discussion is pervasive, posing a threat to climate action and fostering distrust in scientific endeavors. During the “Foresight Dialogues 2023” event, hosted by the CMCC Foundation, misinformation experts John Cook and Paula Gori explored innovative approaches, such as AI-based tools and cognitive science applications, aiming to equip the public with the tools needed to discern accurate information.

Every story is a climate story – Ep. 09

We know a lot about the crisis. We know that it is time to progress from understanding the problems to solving them. However, we also know that there is no perfect solution. It is a matter of shifting understanding and knowledge from science to society, from data to stories, from facts to solutions.

Does climate communication trigger actions and societal changes?

By Carolina Aragon and Ezra Markowitz

Sculptures made of data, fluctuating structures on the water, and an exploration of the
effects that climate art can have on people’s engagement. This is an example of how the scientific approach and the artistic process can bring us to a better understanding of how the climate is perceived by public opinion. An artist and a social scientist explain the way the art installation FutureSHORELINE integrates different perspectives and provides shared knowledge.

IPCC press release: Urgent climate action can secure a liveable future for all

Official press release by the IPCC on the publication of the Synthesis Report – AR6 —-
There are multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released March 20.

Climate on trial – Ep. 07

The Urgenda case was the game changer. It opened up a new dialogue between human rights law and climate science, while it marked a watershed moment for climate justice: from then on, we saw new measures to protect people from the harms posed by climate change. From there, we start with the voices of those who experienced the Urgenda case on the front line.
We tell the story of climate litigation and why it is a crucial aspect of the future planet.

Game over: The future of skiing and winter tourism

If the winters disappear can we engineer them or do we need to start looking into alternative approaches? As more and more evidence piles up against the demise of the ski industry as we know it, mountain communities and researchers start to explore new heights.

Power to the communities

Power to the communities – Ep. 06

Knowledge is power. It is the backbone of an alliance that spans the farthest corners of the planet to the laboratories of the most advanced scientific research. In this episode, we explore the terrain where science meets civil society that triggers climate action. With stories of people in the Global South where natural resources ‘are being used as a weapon’.

The climatization of finance

In our polycrisis era, the year 2023 will be decisive for the finance-nature-climate nexus. Three key upshots for net-zero law based on how policymakers (as recently Ursula von der Leyen in Davos) call financial institutions to mobilize behind future-proof pathways.