Kaj Embrén

11/08/2026

"25,000 dead. €19 billion burned. Still no plan."

Swiss Re's research arm has a new word for Europe's heat risk: chronic. 25,000 dead. €19 billion burned. Even Swiss Re's CEO admits they underestimated it. I called this in 2024, in "Navigating Climate Change." The data finally caught up. The politics still haven't. Read the articles: https://bit.ly/45TLrp3



Inside Climate News UNECE Environmentalist Climate-KIC Climate & Clean Air Coalition Pew Research Center

11/08/2026

Summer reading from Methane Brief nr 7 :

Only 3 of America's 524 coal mines capture their methane at scale. Here's how one of them — CNX Resources — made the economics work, and why the other 521 haven't.

The methane is venting. The solutions are ready. Read more: 241 articles/Post including 14 Newsletter at https://lnkd.in/eAKDyBYX
Subscribe the Newsletter at: https://bit.ly/4wmITKS



Climate & Clean Air Coalition Climate Reality Sustainable Energy for All Environment + Energy Leader Pew Research Center

Most US coal mines vent their methane into the atmosphere. CNX Resources is one of only a handful of operators capturing it at scale — and the only one we've examined that's built a real commercial model around it. The puzzle isn't the technology. It's the finance. ...

07/08/2026

Why Australia Is Asking Again
Methane Brief by Juneia Mallas
| 7 Aug 2026



UNECE Inside Climate News UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network United Nations Global Compact Daily Mail Australia
Australian High Commission, Pakistan

A public consultation has quietly reopened one of the coal industry's oldest unresolved questions — in the country that built the first working answer to it, two decades ago. By Juneia Mallas - The Methane Brief nr 14 - 6 August 2026 Somewhere in New South Wales, a coal mine's ventilation shaft is...

03/08/2026

Summer reading - Methane Brief Nr 2 give you an insight that matters for - Read - Learn and Share - Subscribe to the Newsletter in LinkedIn at

03/08/2026

We need to stop calling this a “bad wildfire season.”

This is what a new economic reality looks like.

Across the U.S., Europe and Asia, wildfires are becoming larger, more frequent, and more destructive. In the U.S., nearly 100 large wildfires have been burning simultaneously. Europe is experiencing one of its most damaging fire seasons in decades, while parts of Asia are facing increasingly severe wildfire outbreaks.

Today’s Financial Times analysis puts a price tag on what many leaders still underestimate: more than €3.1 billion in economic losses have already been recorded across Europe’s five hardest-hit countries this year—before the wildfire season has even peaked. Nearly 500,000 hectares have burned. And those figures don’t include the full costs to public health, disrupted supply chains, tourism, agriculture, insurance, infrastructure, or lost productivity. (Financial Times - https://bit.ly/4gapBDC )

Climate risk is no longer an environmental issue.

It’s a balance sheet issue.
It’s a supply chain issue.
It’s an insurance issue.
It’s a national security issue.
It’s a boardroom issue.

The organizations that succeed over the next decade won’t be the ones with the best sustainability reports.

They’ll be the ones that build resilience into every decision they make.

The climate isn’t waiting.

Neither should we.

02/08/2026

It's summertime — a good season to slow down and reflect. 🌞

What does leadership for the next generation actually look like when it comes to climate action and sustainability?

In the Transformers podcast, more than 50 leaders — at every level, from grassroots changemakers to global executives — share the stories behind their work. Real insights, real challenges, real hope.

🎧 Listen here: https://bit.ly/3ucjYdk



Environmentalist UNECE Climate-KIC Inside Climate News Climate Group

26/07/2026

Methane drives 30% of global warming. It gets 2% of climate finance.

That gap is the story of this summer.

The UN Secretary-General issued a Call to Action on Methane. The Bank of England dropped coal bonds from its collateral framework. London broke its June heat record in the same week 45,000 climate professionals gathered there to talk about it.

The policy window opened. Capital hasn't moved.
It should — because the solutions already exist:
🔴 CNX Resources — capturing methane at scale in Appalachia. The economics work. https://bit.ly/4hpFO90
🟠 Anguil Environmental — turning ventilation air methane into energy. Deployable now. https://bit.ly/4wAHmCq
🟡 Eisenmann — one of the cheapest climate fixes on the table. Peer-reviewed and priced. https://bit.ly/4hs9jHj

Policymakers: put coal mine methane in your national climate frameworks.
Investors: the first-mover window is open.

The methane is venting. The solutions are ready. Read more in the 241 articles/Post including 13 Newsletter at https://lnkd.in/eAKDyBYX



Sign up: LinkedIn Newsletter https://bit.ly/4yAHOS3

Environmentalist UK Business and Trade UNECE Green Climate Fund IKEA Foundation United Nations Global Compact

23/07/2026

Every day, our bodies absorb chemicals we never agreed to be exposed to.

In 2003, Margot Wallström — then the EU's Commissioner for the Environment — had her own blood tested. She found 28 of 77 persistent pollutants inside her. That test became one of the reasons Europe built REACH, still the world's most ambitious chemicals law.

I sat down in 2022 with Wallström, who went on to become Vice-President of the European Commission, to talk about what's happened since. Her message, in short: REACH was groundbreaking in 2006. It is not enough in 2026.

The numbers back her up. According to the European Environmental Bureau, it now takes an average of 19 years to restrict a single dangerous chemical under REACH. The long-promised REACH revision has been delayed again this year, stalled by industry lobbying dressed up as "simplification."

Meanwhile the evidence keeps stacking up. A new UK company, lastinghealth, now offers at-home tests for chemical exposure — because, as its founder puts it, "we're only beginning to understand what these chemicals are doing" to us. Greenpeace's own investigations, including recent findings on hazardous chemicals in fast-fashion supply chains, show why enforcement, not just legislation, has to catch up.

Chemical policy shouldn't move slower than the chemicals themselves.

🎥 Watch the full interview in Transformers: https://bit.ly/3TQvg96

More from Air Quality News: https://bit.ly/4wjXHLi

Have you ever tested for chemical exposure? I'd love to hear your experience.



World Health Organization (WHO) SEI - Stockholm Environment Institute Environmentalist EcoWatch Greenpeace Sverige Greenpeace UK

20/07/2026

After dozens of conversations with sustainability leaders, one thing is clear: the biggest barrier to climate action is no longer technology. It's leadership.

CEOs, mayors, investors, scientists and policymakers keep returning to the same themes:

Climate action is now a business resilience strategy, not just an environmental one
Cities are outpacing national governments as innovation labs
Green finance has gone from niche to essential
Methane cuts remain the fastest, cheapest way to slow warming — and still overlooked
AI can accelerate progress, but only with good governance
Cross-sector collaboration beats going it alone

The takeaway: solutions aren't the bottleneck. The courage to scale them is.

I've captured these insights in my Fireside Chats and Transformers – The Sustainability Changemakers podcast, as well as essays on KajEmbren.org.

What topic deserves more attention over the next 12 months?



Inside Climate News UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Cities: Skylines NewCities Urban Outfitters C40 Cities Climate-KIC

20/07/2026

Trust Was the First Export
- What the Silk Road Can Teach Modern Trade About Collaboration, Sustainability, and the Value We Have Not Yet Learned to Trade

Last week I was at the Pakistan High Commission in London for the roadshow launching the International Silk Route Festival, opening in Islamabad this October.

The room kept returning to one idea: the Silk Road was never really about silk. It was about trust.

That struck close to my own work. The old route runs straight through the heart of the world's coal methane — the invisible cargo the map never showed, still vented by the megatonne today. Where mines are built for it, we can now capture that methane rather than lose it to the sky. What's usually missing isn't the technology. It's the trusted networks to verify, finance, and move that value across borders where no single power sets the rules.

That is the modern version of the Silk Road's first export.

And for Pakistan, the honest first step isn't a capture project at all — it's a just transition: safety, ventilation, monitoring, the human story in mines that were never built to vent.

My article - https://bit.ly/4wW9G1y on what the Silk Road can still teach us about trade, climate, and trust



UNECE Climate Group World Resources Institute UK Business and Trade Silk Road