COP28: Tackling Fossil Fuels, and a Final Push to Keep 1.5 Alive

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What’s Around the Corner

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What’s Around the Corner

Limits to Decoupling Drive Calls for Geoengineering

Leading research suggests that decoupling from GHG emissions is unlikely to occur fast enough to reach the Paris Agreement goals, with current policies set to push global warming beyond 1.5°C this decade.
As skepticism about the potential of decoupling to limit warming rises, climate experts and world leaders are eyeing alternatives. These range from discussion of different economic models, looking beyond growth, to calls for geoengineering interventions, such as Solar Radiation Management (SRM).
There is no international governance framework for SRM, and research into its impacts has been ad hoc and fragmented, rather than the product of a comprehensive strategy. Impacts may be unequally distributed, with those most at risk least likely to be represented in decision-making.

Fossil Demand Peaks This Decade, but Not Soon Enough

The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts global demand for oil, coal, and gas will peak before 2030, but warming will nonetheless pass 1.5°C this decade.
China plans to reach peak coal consumption by 2025. IEA projections suggest it is on track, with slow economic growth curbing demand for energy.
New data indicates that liquid natural gas, counted on by many to play a key role in the energy transition, may be responsible for up to 274 percent more GHG over its lifespan than coal, largely due to methane leaks in transportation.

Climate Insurance Risk Threatens Properties, Communities, and Economies

The global insurance standards body is calling on national regulators to do more to increase financial protection for people and businesses exposed to natural catastrophes, as climate change spurs more damaging storms, floods and fires.
The European Central Bank published findings that only a quarter of climate-related catastrophe losses in the EU are insured.
Communities heavily impacted by insurance availability can lose businesses, livelihoods, and related fiscal funding for public services.
Land tenure is critical to enable investment in climate resilience, which can improve insurability and lower premiums.

Our Experts

Our Focus Area team consists of global experts across multiple focus areas, bringing a depth of experience and knowledge to integrating focus areas and sustainability strategies.

Giulio Berruti

Director, Climate Change

Copenhagen

Director, Climate Change, BSR

Copenhagen

Giulio leads BSR's climate work in the EMEA region. BSR works globally on value chain decarbonization across consulting, collaborative initiatives, and grants. Giulio brings expertise in Scope 3 supplier engagement, reverse sourcing, and commodities decarbonization, as well as helping companies implement their net zero and environmental targets. He also works across sectors on implementing the TCFD recommendations and climate scenario analysis.

Prior to joining BSR, Giulio worked for climate change consulting firm EcoAct in both France and Kenya. His work focused on climate targets, carbon neutrality, and project implementation, as well climate risk assessments. He speaks English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Giulio holds an M.S. in Sustainability from HEC Paris School of Management. He also holds a double degree M.S. in Management and Industrial Engineering and a double degree B.S. in Technology and International Business from Politecnico di Torino and UIC Barcelona

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Deb Gallagher

Director, Climate Change

New York

Director, Climate Change, BSR

New York

Deb leads BSR’s climate work in the US. She works closely with BSR’s external partnership teams to accelerate decarbonization while engendering climate justice. She works with Transform to Net Zero (TONZ) collaborative initiative members to amplify leadership behaviors that promote a just and resilient future. Deb leads efforts to create a series of TONZ Transformation Guides on issues such as climate transition action plans (CTAPs), climate policy engagement, and climate justice.

Prior to joining BSR, Deb was a professor at Duke University, where she led the Business and Environment program. Her research focused on business leadership behaviors required to advance sustainability, including stakeholder relationship management, ESG data acquisition and use, public policy engagement, and design of strategic partnerships. Over the course of 20 years at Duke, she mentored over 200 sustainability leaders. Prior to Duke, she held environmental leadership positions in manufacturing and government.

Deb holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University

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Eileen Gallagher

Director, Climate Change

Hong Kong

Director, Climate Change, BSR

Hong Kong

With nearly 20 years of experience, Eileen works with multinational companies to address climate change. She specializes in improving business strategy to consider how climate change and its solutions affect society, the environment, and the economy.

Eileen directs BSR’s advisory and grant-funded work where climate intersects with human rights and equity, inclusion, and justice. She also supports companies with climate risk and scenario analysis, emissions reduction targets, and net-zero roadmaps. Eileen is BSR’s climate lead in the Asia-Pacific region, where she analyzed how climate change affects vulnerable nations, its people, and global supply chains.

Prior to joining BSR in 2017, Eileen served as a sustainability consultant, supporting companies on sustainability strategy development, strategic stakeholder engagement, and environmental management. While working at a public policy organization, she gained experience in international development, climate policy analysis, and effective communications.

Eileen holds a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut.

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David Wei

Managing Director, Climate and Nature

New York

Managing Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

New York

David works with companies to develop and implement credible environmental goals, manage climate and nature risks, integrate justice into environmental action, and incubate collaborations to build a net-zero economy.

He strives to maximize the impact of our applied research, collaborative initiatives, and work with individual companies. This often means innovating how companies credibly align with the Paris Agreement, adapt to inbound climate disclosure regulation, and take advantage of growing interest in science-based nature goals. David also directs BSR’s Transform to Net Zero collaborative initiative.

Before joining BSR, David was a climate diplomat for the Marshall Islands with the advisory group Independent Diplomat and led on emissions reductions and transparency in the UN climate negotiations for the Alliance of Small Island States. As an international lawyer with the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, David built up the environmental treaty expertise of governments across the globe. He began his career as a securities litigator with Fried Frank in New York and a commercial litigator with Cassels Brock in Toronto, before focusing on climate change.

David holds a LLM in International Law from New York University, a JD and MA in International Relations from the University of Toronto, and a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University.