<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Financial Times Jan 30, 2021</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Climate change </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">Too many boardrooms are climate incompetent </b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">There is a striking lack of directors with expertise in climate change and ESG issues </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">PILITA CLARK </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none" class=""><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/611522b7-8cf6-4340-bc8a-f4e92782567c" class="">https://www.ft.com/content/611522b7-8cf6-4340-bc8a-f4e92782567c</a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">Excerpt </b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Not that long ago, I found myself on a video call with a group of business people where a man who once ran a very large company said something unexpected. He revealed a survey of boardrooms he had been involved with had found that </span><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #fffb00" class="">just 7 per cent of board members were “climate competent”, meaning they knew enough about climate change to understand how it could affect their business. .</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class="">There were audible gasps when he said this, but there should have been no surprise. The dearth of boardroom climate expertise is actually worse in some places, according to a new study from New York University’s Stern Center for Sustainable Business. </span><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">When its researchers combed through the biographies of 1,188 board members at the 100 largest US companies, guess how many directors they found had specific climate expertise? Three. That’s 0.2 per cent of the total, just 6 per cent of whom had broader environmental experience. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">At a time of ballooning investor demand for climate action, these numbers highlight the stark gap between what companies are saying about cutting carbon emissions and what they are actually doing. What is being said is striking. Since the start of 2020, the number of the largest companies with a net-zero emissions target has tripled to at least 1,500. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Yet too few firms have a detailed plan for reaching those targets, which is no surprise considering the state of boardroom climate competence. This might not matter if global warming was no problem for companies.</span><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">End of excerpt </b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(255, 38, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 102, 153); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #000000" class="">Nature Climate Change</span><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #144fae" class=""> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#article-info" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 153);" class="">Published: 06 May 2019</span></a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff" class=""><b class="">Children can foster climate change concern among their parents</b></span></div>
<ul style="list-style-type: none" class="">
<li style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 102, 153);" class=""><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class=""><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#auth-1" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Danielle F. Lawson</span></a></span><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #144fae; background-color: #ffffff" class="">, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#auth-2" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">Kathryn T. Stevenson</span></a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#auth-3" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">M. Nils Peterson</span></a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#auth-4" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">Sarah J. Carrier</span></a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#auth-5" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">Renee L. Strnad</span></a> & <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#auth-6" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">Erin Seekamp</span></a> </span></li></ul><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 17px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class=""></b></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><b class="">Abstract</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">The collective action that is required to mitigate and adapt to climate change is extremely difficult to achieve, largely due to socio-ideological biases that perpetuate polarization over climate change </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#ref-CR1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">1</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">,</span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#ref-CR2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">2</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">. Because climate change perceptions in children seem less susceptible to the influence of worldview or political context </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#ref-CR3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">3</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">, it may be possible for them to inspire adults towards higher levels of climate concern, and in turn, collective action </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#ref-CR4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">4</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">. Child-to-parent intergenerational learning—that is, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">the transfer of knowledge, attitudes or behaviours from children to parents</span> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#ref-CR5" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">5</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">—may be a promising pathway to overcoming socio-ideological barriers to climate concern </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#ref-CR5" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">5</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">. Here we present an experimental evaluation of an educational intervention designed to build climate change concern among parents indirectly through their middle school-aged children in North Carolina, USA. Parents of children in the treatment group expressed higher levels of climate change concern than parents in the control group. The effects were strongest among male parents and conservative parents, who, consistent with previous research </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0463-3#ref-CR1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none; color: #006699" class="">1</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">, displayed the lowest levels of climate concern before the intervention. </span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0); -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Daughters appeared to be especially effective in influencing parents</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">. Our results suggest that intergenerational learning may overcome barriers to building climate concern.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class="">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font color="#ff2600" class="">+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</font><br class="">“The emphasis on consensus in IPCC reports, however, has put the spotlight on expected outcomes,…"<br class=""> <br class="">“...it is now equally important that policy-makers understand the more extreme possibilities that consensus may exclude or downplay.”<br class=""> <br class="">Michael Oppenheimer, Brian C. O’Neill, Mort Webster, Shardul Agrawala . The Limits of Consensus. Science SEPTEMBER 14 2007</div></div>
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