As January draws to a close and this classic greeting for Chinese New Year is heard, we’re going to need the intelligence, resilience and love the Year of the Snake is said to represent more than ever. 
The end of January is almost here, and it can’t come too soon. This is the month in the northern hemisphere with a reputation for dreariness. Although the winter solstice day with the shortest daylight hours was in December, January is a dark month, both physically and metaphorically - not for nothing does its 3rd week start with Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year, and January 2025 has been a textbook example of gloom with a large dollop of despair for anyone involved in addressing the increasing impact of climate change on both sides of the Atlantic. 
 
In the USA, as climate change driven fires raged in California, the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed a multiplicity of orders including pulling the USA out of the Paris Climate Agreement. In the UK the Labour government removed the rights for communities and individuals to challenge infrastructure proposals on environmental or ecological grounds sparking fear and dismay particularly in rural areas as protection of fragile ecosystems and the green belt is apparently being jettisoned – with no discussion or democratic debate - in favour of “economic prosperity”. The latest broadside against positive action on emissions being the announcement on expanding Heathrow airport – global aviation being a significant contributor to global warming. 
 
JS Global’s Managing Partner Paul Stuart-Smith quotes in his latest article ESG; fiddling while the planet burns, written for Illuminem, “What happens in the next five years will determine the future of life on earth”.  
This apocalyptic prediction comes from the World Wildlife Fund’s 2024 Living Planet report published last October. The piece builds on the theme of the demise of ESG – at least as a quotable acronym - which has become absolutely PNG* to quote another acronym from a rather different context, but to my mind does the job perfectly. (*PNG is an abbreviation for the Latin persona non grata, which means "an unwelcome or unacceptable person" - in this context ESG has become a phrase non grata). 
 
The fact that global emissions continue to rise despite multiple factors - the massive growth in world-wide renewable energy capacity, the widespread adoption of national and corporate net zero pledges, carbon pricing, the almost daily news reports of deadly weather and other disasters catalysed by climate change - appears to fly in the face of all the obvious evidence which could not be clearer. Climate-related reporting and target setting by businesses, using a plethora of frameworks and systems, is also at a significant high in terms of numbers of companies. CDP, the global platform for companies, cities, states and regions to report informationon their climate, deforestation and water security impacts established in 2000 started with a group of 35 investors requesting information. There are now over 28,000 companies reporting annually with the number rising year on year, but is all this reporting actually creating change? Not in terms of driving emissions down by all accounts. 
 
The Illuminem article also addresses the scale of the challenge of biodiversity loss, and highlights the UK as one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. This current government’s stance on unchallenged infrastructure development will exacerbate the problems which are already causing tension within communities, and creating obstacles in earmarking sufficient “spare” terrestrial land for conservation and restoration to fulfil its own obligations under key targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework
 
Gong Xi Fa Cai is classically interpreted as "Congratulations and may you be prosperous”. Prosperity should surely mean respecting the natural world and ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come. 
 
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