Environment News Trends: COP28, Reforestation Initiatives, and Climate Change

A look at the environmental news from PR Newswire in November and December that you might have missed.

By Aaron Searle | Published Jan. 3, 2023

PR Newswire distributed more than 1,600 environment releases in November and December. Staying up-to-date with all the news and trends can be challenging, so we have collected the top stories to identify key trends in the industry and how they tie together.

Late November and early December saw one of the largest environmentally focused conferences of the year: the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28), “the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change with almost complete membership of every country in the world.” This year’s conference was held in Dubai from Nov. 30, 2023, to Dec. 12, 2023, and we saw plenty of related press releases cross the wire.

The past couple months also saw an uptick in organizations partnering for reforestation initiatives around the world, especially in areas affected by wildfires and other natural disasters. And, as always, the impact of climate change remained an ever-popular topic for environmental news throughout November and December.

Let’s dive into these trends, as well as others of the best-performing environmental releases in November and December.

Popular Environment Releases

Over the past two months, these were some of the most popular environment/ESG press releases to cross the wire:

• Canoo Unveils the American Bulldog
• Dow's Board of Directors Approves Final Investment Decision for Path2Zero Project
• Paleblue to Debut in REI Retailers Nationwide
• Gulfstream Completes World's First Trans-Atlantic Flight on 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel
• Biomemory Unveils Groundbreaking DNA Cards, Revolutionizing Data Storage Technology

Environment News Trends

Here’s a look at a few of the top trends we noticed among environment press releases in November and December, with a few examples of each.

COP28

COP28 veritably dominated the environmental news cycle for November and December with nearly 350 related releases crossing the wire. It’s no wonder: this year’s conference hosted approximately 85,000 attendees (a significant deal more than the expected 70,000, and over twice last year’s headcount of ~ 38,000) and saw over $85 billion in climate-based finance commitments from companies. Here’s some of the biggest news from the event:

• More than 1,000 private sector CEOs, heads of state and philanthropic leaders came together at first-ever Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum, convened by Sustainable Markets Initiative and founder, His Majesty King Charles III.
• NASA hosted the NASA Hyperwall, a main attraction at the U.S. Center showing how the agency's climate science and research helps model and predict ocean health, heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and droughts, among its other Earth-related research.
• Schneider Electric signed an MoU with the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) to explore collaborative opportunities for youth and women. The two companies also joined the RISE initiative, an international documentary video series designed to inspire public and private decision-makers to implement new solutions.
• Huawei joined more than 40 leading tech companies and organizations to push for Green Digital Action (GDA) at COP28; The group will meet throughout 2024 until COP29 to accelerate the implementation of identified standards, share best practices, and address existing gaps.
• The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) coordinated the largest industry gathering at COP28, including over 300 leaders from 60 organizations from around the world, to discuss tangible solutions to meet the ambitious net zero targets by or around 2050.
• An HBCU Green Fund delegation led by climate advocate Felicia Davis championed global climate action at COP28 when it announced the opening of the HBCU Green Fund's new Africa office in Senegal.

Reforestation Initiatives

With all the wildfires and other natural disasters of the past few years – such as Maui’s wildfires this past August and Hurricane Ian’s landfall in Florida in September 2022 – many organizations around the world have been partnering for reforestation initiatives to help reverse the damage. The organization One Tree Planted has been particularly active, joining forces with several other companies – including LILYSILK, Mercuryo, and Amazfit – in the past couple months to see these projects get off (or should we say into?) the ground.

In all, “reforestation” was mentioned in nearly 50 releases during the two-month period. Below are a few more examples of releases highlighting these tree-planting projects around the world:

• Prestige French beauty brand Clarins partnered with The Malibu Foundation for its fourth annual community Replant Love event, aiming to invigorate the Santa Monica Mountains in Southern California after 2018's Woolsey Fire.
• Mowilex, a leading producer of premium paints and wood coatings, planted 25,000 mangrove trees in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, which are expected to support local communities while preventing beach erosion, controlling flooding, storing carbon and providing habitat along the Kupah River.
• Duke Energy and Coastal Conservation Association Florida teamed up to plant 500 red and black mangroves in Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park in Naples, Florida, an area devastated by Hurricane Ian.
• Stericycle was named a Green Company of the Year by BIG Awards for Business, thanks in part to its partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, through which it has committed to plant over 120,000 trees.

Climate Change

Climate change remains an evergreen hot topic (that’s practically two puns in one – you’re welcome), and this November and December featured some big news along these lines – such as the fact that, according to Climate Central, October 2023 capped the hottest 12-month span in recorded history. There’s also been a great deal of organic overlap between talk of climate change and news coming out of COP28, like Education Cannot Wait’s thought-leadership piece, “The Climate Crisis is an Education Crisis.”

PR Newswire distributed more than 1,200 releases in the U.S. and Canada in November and December that mentioned “climate change.” Here are just a few of them:

• NASA and partners unveiled the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center, a hub for collaboration between agencies across the U.S. government, as well as non-profit and private sector partners, to accelerate the use of Earth science data in environmental initiatives.
• According to a late-November report by The Rockefeller Foundation, the world can limit global warming to 1.9 °C by 2090. Their report, Vulnerable Populations in a Warming World: Four Futures Explored, identifies the global actions needed to get there.
• On December 7, 2023, the international youth organization World's Youth for Climate Justice was awarded the Youth Carnegie Peace Prize for its dedicated efforts in fighting climate change by means of international law and for advocating climate justice.

Conclusion

2023 was a particularly big year for the environmental sector, and with the stakes constantly on the rise, 2024 promises to go even larger. We’re likely to see plenty of news over the next couple months in which companies announce their sustainability goals/pledges for the new year. Major collaborations are sure to retain a healthy amount of buzz, and we can look forward to new sustainably minded products and services being announced as we come out of the holiday season.

As always, the PR Newswire team will continue to closely monitor both the ongoing and emerging trends in the environmental sector to help you stay up to date on the latest.

About the Author

Aaron Searle is a Senior Editor with PR Newswire and just celebrated his 10-year anniversary with the company. When not on the clock, he spends most of his time with his wife and two kids. In the wee hours leftover, he also pursues various creative endeavors, particularly writing, music (he is roughly three-quarters of the band Dover Cloudbank), and photography. He even sleeps occasionally.