Transformative climate action

How to spot it, do it and enable it

Climate Innovation Insights Series 5: Thinking about Transformation | November 2020

As the climate community prepares for another Year of Climate Action in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, how can we ensure that we engage in climate action that is truly transformative

To avoid devaluing the term transformation (and – worse – failing to achieve Paris targets), we need to be honest about where significant change is needed to enable rapid transformation. This includes the need for significant change in political and decision-making structures, and in social norms, particularly where these are supported by established networks and institutions to maintain the status quo.

This fifth series of EIT Climate-KIC Climate Innovation Insights: Thinking About Transformation addresses:

  • The role of incumbency and resistance to rapid transformation as barriers to achieving Paris targets
  • The power of an ‘innovation portfolio approach’ to transformation, and the role it can play in mitigating risks in the context of climate change, uncertainty and stranded assets
  • The need for a new generation of metrics to help drive transformative change
  • The mission-critical role of deep citizen engagement, and the expansion of democracy, in achieving Paris targets.

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Kirsten Dunlop, CEO, EIT Climate-KIC "We need to see transformation as the new normal if we want to achieve a more equal, healthy, zero-emissions world, in time. This is the work."