This series is sponsored by GIB AM

The year 2024 was the hottest on record and the first to officially breach the 1.5°C global warming limit set by the Paris Agreement.

As the climate crisis deepens, strong leadership is crucial to enabling the systemic changes needed to protect our future. While new generations of leaders face the growing impacts of climate change, they have the advantage of learning from, and building on, the work of the trailblazers who have come before them.

So, what can we do to ensure the next wave of climate leaders is ready to take on the biggest challenges of our time? Climate change is a global problem: no one state can fix it, no single action is enough.

How do you bring people with you? Where are the opportunities for collaboration, and where are the networks to tap into? How do you make your career the most impactful it can be? Climate change isn’t just a topic of conversation- it’s a call to action.

In this sixth and final episode of the Women in Climate podcast, host Naomi Kerbel, director of communications at SEC Newgate UK talks to Sherry Madera, chief executive of CDP, Anna Pot, the Netherlands' national co-ordinator for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Marina Antonopoulou, chief officer for Climate and Conservation, Emirates Nature-WWF.

This series is sponsored by GIB AM

Finance is at the heart of all discussions around climate action, and it is thought of both as an opportunity and an expense.

At Cop29, an agreement was reached for rich countries to provide developing nations with $300 billion annually to help them decarbonise, through a mixture of government and private investment.

As trillions of dollars are funnelled into climate action over the coming decades, how do we make sure this money is well spent? What are the principles that should direct these investments to ensure equitable climate action? What are the blocks to moving finance and how do we make sure that the people most impacted receive the support they need?

The fifth episode of the Women in Climate podcast series delves into the complexities of sustainable finance with three trailblazing women, exploring the evolving ESG landscape and the critical role of financial institutions in driving decarbonisation.

We address the challenges of balancing compliance with genuine commitment, and examine the need for greater transparency and accountability.

Our discussion highlights the progress being made in places such as the UAE, while also confronting the global policy shifts and the importance of a holistic approach to ESG, emphasising human rights and the impact on developing nations.

We explore the idea that the transition to sustainable energy is not always a clean one, and that we must be aware of the effect of our choices on developing nations.

We also explore the idea that business can play a much larger role in the transition, and that we need to move away from a system where everyone is pointing at each other, towards a system where we are all working together.

In this episode, host Naomi Kerbel, director of communications at SEC Newgate UK, interviews Victoria Barron, chief sustainability officer, GIB Asset Management, Habiba Al Mar’ashi, president and chief executive of Arabia CSR Network, and co-founder and chairwoman of Emirates Environmental Group, and Avery Johnstone, manager at KPMG’s Global Decarbonisation Hub.

With more than 300 million people globally in urgent need of assistance, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is struggling to meet growing demand and operating under severe financial constraints, the UN’s humanitarian chief has said.

In an interview with The National’s Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi, the UN’s Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher emphasised the importance of making humanitarian operations more efficient by cutting bureaucracy and diversifying funding sources beyond traditional donors.

As he completed his first 100 days in office, a period marked by escalating conflicts in the Middle East, Mr Fletcher said he had visited Gaza, Syria and Sudan, and described Gaza as “worse than anything” he had ever seen. He highlighted the success of aid operations since the Gaza ceasefire took effect, which have managed to get 20,000 aid lorries into the enclave.

Turning to Syria, Mr Fletcher urged the international community to engage in reconstruction efforts as the country emerges from years of civil war and sanctions.

He also praised the UAE’s growing leadership in humanitarian aid, noting its significant role not just in funding, but also in bringing innovation and problem-solving to the sector.