Yan Swiderski is a former investment banker who is passionate about the environment.
So much so that he and Jasper Judd co-founded the innovative Global Returns Project.
This aims to encourage charitable giving in a simple way, using the power of Britons' combined generosity to raise enough finance to make an effective change in protecting the environment.
Swiderski says: “Scientists call this the ‘decisive decade’ for tackling the global emergencies of climate change and biodiversity loss. That means anything we can do before 2030 will be decisive for the future of our planet.
He feels it important to point out that the climate crisis is “no longer a theoretical issue for the future – it’s already causing heatwaves, wildfires, ocean acidification, crop failures, flooding and many other destructive effects”.
These are all issues that are becoming more critical in client conversations, especially with the news focusing on events such as the devastating floods in Dubai.
Rachel Travers, chief executive of charity Rainforest Trust UK, agrees. According to her, “climate change is perhaps the single most pressing issue facing the planet and humankind today.
"The impacts of a changing climate are far reaching, affecting all parts of the world and human societies.”
Travers encapsulates this complex issue as being that “rising temperatures lead to more severe, unpredictable weather events and natural disasters, land and water degradation, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity".
Critical moment
Joanna Haigh, environmental expert and chair of the technical committee of the Global Returns Project, outlines some of the evidence that we are in climate crises and that this is a critical moment.
“The Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record since record-keeping began in 1880” she says.
The number of extreme weather events, according to studies by World Weather Attribution, has grown substantially over the past 10-15 years.
For example, climate data website Carbon Brief showcases incidents where human involvement has led directly to an extreme weather event (see image, below).
Haigh says science and morality are closely connected; science reveals to people that we must act unselfishly, and help each other, especially those in poorer environs who are most seriously impacted negatively by climate change.
Many scientists “feel socially responsible for the outcomes of science”, she says.
But according to Chris Rapley, professor of climate science at University College London, “science is about facts, but it is also about care”. He says climate change is “revealed by science, but it is not about science”.
He raises the question, “is the (natural) environment part of the economy, or is the economy part of the (natural) environment?”
For far too long the environment has been serving the economy, with far too great an intensity.
This is why the Global Returns Project seeks to invest finance into the environment, so that the environment can return to a healthy situation where it serves humankind positively.
