Kaj Embrén

09/06/2026

City Talk that matters -London Climate Action Week starts next week — https://bit.ly/4urObnE and the Cities Climate Action Summit on 20–28 June is the conversation that matters most for green finance.

The real shortage is not capital. Pension funds and responsible investors are actively looking for long-term sustainable opportunities. What is missing are bankable, well-governed municipal borrowers who can meet them on equal terms.

The Nordic model shows it is possible. Malmö has been competing in global capital markets since 2017 — attracting pension funds and insurers through green bonds, transparent reporting, and serious investor engagement. ICLEI is now building a training programme to help cities worldwide replicate exactly that.

AI, governance design, and impact investment are central to the new ICLEI Green Finance Academy. London is the right room to move from framework to action.

Read more on how Malmö built its blueprint — and what other cities can learn: https://lnkd.in/eKcbfZtA



Climate Action Network-International Green Climate Fund Wedonthavetime.org Inside Climate News ICLEI-South Asia @
Climate Group C40 Cities

08/06/2026

This week, Brussels. Next week, London. On 15 July, the EU ETS review proposal.
Three weeks that could shape how Europe prices climate action for the next decade — and a conversation that keeps leaving out its fastest, cheapest option.

1. LinkedIn Latest Newsletter - Methane Brief at https://bit.ly/4ohOFv0

2. Clean Exit: Coal Methane Abatement Archive - https://bit.ly/4euABLe

3. The footnote that makes coal's methane problem three times cheaper to fix
- https://bit.ly/3SrKqRv

EUSEW 2026 opens today: Europe's largest clean energy gathering, with more than 50 sessions across the decarbonisation framework, the 2030 and 2040 targets, and the European Green Deal. The agenda is loud about renewables and efficiency.

It is quiet about methane.

The Commission's live ETS assessment is examining scope expansion, the integration of carbon removals, and criteria for linking the EU ETS with other carbon markets. That is the opening. If methane abatement from coal mines can generate verified, tradable value under EU rules, the economics of one of the most underfunded climate interventions change entirely.

The science is already there. Coal mine methane is satellite-verified, immediately measurable, and fully additional. VAM oxidation removes more than 99% at the stack, at $7–20 per tonne of CO₂e — a fraction of direct air capture.

The policy window is open. The capital is not following yet.



Climate Action Network-International Green Climate Fund Wedonthavetime.org Inside Climate News EU Climate Action European Commission Euronews English

06/06/2026

Today is Sweden's National Day. 🇸🇪
I'm Swedish. And today — more than most years — I feel a need to ask a question rather than celebrate.

Four years ago I stood in Stockholm at Stockholm+50, the UN's commemoration of 50 years of global environmental diplomacy. Sweden was proud host. The message from the world was clear: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all — our responsibility, our opportunity. My message in a short video was two words: Keep it up.

So — has Sweden kept it up?

The picture is uncomfortable. Sweden's carbon emissions actually rose 7 percent last year, breaking a long downward trend. The government has halted investments in high-speed rail, cancelled subsidies for electric vehicles, increased taxes on solar electricity, and blocked 13 offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea — 32 GW of clean energy capacity — gone.

Climate experts want to see Swedish climate policy get back on track — with greater ambition, fewer fossil fuel subsidies, and alignment with its own national and EU climate targets. Current policies are being weakened or removed, and fossil fuel use has increased, not decreased. European Environment Agency

And yet. Sweden's greenhouse gas emission intensities per capita and per GDP remain among the lowest in the EU. Over 2010–22, emissions fell 29%, faster than the EU average. Renewable energy accounted for over two-thirds of electricity generation. The foundation is real. The ambition once was real. Digit

Which makes the current direction not just disappointing — but a genuine waste.

Sweden has been a plantshop for climate democracy. Almedalsveckan — now just weeks away in Visby — has been the place where Sweden's climate politics is debated openly, freely, in a park, for 57 years. That tradition of open democratic conversation is one of Sweden's greatest exports.

The question on Sweden's National Day 2026 is not whether Sweden can keep it up. It's whether it will.

Next week, London Climate Action Week opens — and the world is watching who shows up. My roadmap for climate action between the COPs: https://bit.ly/43ggev2

Transformers — The Sustainability Changemakers — listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts at https://kajembren.org

06/06/2026

05/06/2026

I've been attending climate events for over five decades — from COP negotiations to harbour-front democracy festivals in Visby and Arendal. After all of it, I've come to one firm conclusion: the most transformative climate action isn't happening in conference halls. It's happening in your city, this week, often with no cameras watching.

London Climate Action Week opens on 20 June. 750+ events. Nine days. The whole city. Free and open to all.(some with a price tag)

Read the article here: https://bit.ly/43ggev2

I wrote this piece because I believe the gap between global summits and local action is where the real work gets done — and where too many of us stop paying attention. If you're in London, show up. If you're not, find your own version of this wherever you are.

This article is part of my ongoing work as host of Transformers — The Sustainability Changemakers podcast - https://kajembren.org - , where I speak with the people driving the green transition. If you want to hear these conversations in depth, listen wherever you get your podcasts.

LeadershipMatters

05/06/2026

I've been attending climate events for over five decades — from COP negotiations to harbour-front democracy festivals in Visby and Arendal. After all of it, I've come to one firm conclusion: the most transformative climate action isn't happening in conference halls. It's happening in your city, this week, often with no cameras watching.

London Climate Action Week opens on 20 June. 750+ events. Nine days. The whole city. Free and open to all. (Some with a pricetag)

I wrote this piece because I believe the gap between global summits and local action is where the real work gets done — and where too many of us stop paying attention. If you're in London, show up. If you're not, find your own version of this wherever you are.

This article is part of my ongoing work as host of Transformers — The Sustainability Changemakers podcast - https://kajembren.org - , where I speak with the people driving the green transition. If you want to hear these conversations in depth, listen wherever you get your podcasts.


Climate Action Network-International Green Climate Fund Wedonthavetime.org Inside Climate News Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

01/06/2026

EU Green Week. Lots of panels. Lots of commitments.

Here is what the agenda rarely mentions:

The EU Methane Regulation is live. Coal mine monitoring requirements are tightening. The 15 July ETS review proposal could open the door to methane integration in carbon markets for the first time.

That is not a small thing.

If methane abatement generates tradable carbon value under EU rules, the economics of coal mine clean-up change entirely. Not in 2030. Now.

The policy window is open. The capital window is not — yet.

That is the gap we are working on.

Follow and subscribe for free at https://methanebrief.org



Wedonthavetime.org Green Climate Fund Climate Action Network-International EU Climate Action European Commission UN Environment Programme Europe Climate & Clean Air Coalition

31/05/2026

We've been told for years that the clean energy transition depends on lithium.

Lithium from hard-to-reach places. Lithium from politically unstable regions. Lithium that requires destructive mining — and a supply chain that recreates exactly the fossil fuel dependencies we're trying to escape.

Here's what nobody's talking about loudly enough:

CATL just changed the equation.

China's battery giant — controlling 40% of the global EV battery market — has begun mass-producing sodium-ion batteries. Sodium. The stuff in your kitchen salt. The fourth most abundant element on Earth.

No cobalt. No nickel. No lithium. No rare earth drama.

Their Naxtra batteries deliver 500km+ range, work from -40°C to 70°C, and have passed the world's most rigorous battery safety certification. They're already going into passenger cars, trucks, and energy storage — at scale — right now.

This isn't a lab experiment. This is a commercial reality.

The question we should be asking isn't "when will green energy be affordable?"

It's: why are we still building a supposedly sustainable future on the same extractive logic as the old one?

CATL just proved we don't have to.

What do you think — does this change your view on the EV supply chain story?



Wedonthavetime.org International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

31/05/2026

We've been told for years that the clean energy transition depends on lithium.

Lithium from hard-to-reach places. Lithium from politically unstable regions. Lithium that requires destructive mining — and a supply chain that recreates exactly the fossil fuel dependencies we're trying to escape.

Here's what nobody's talking about loudly enough:

CATL just changed the equation.

China's battery giant — controlling 40% of the global EV battery market — has begun mass-producing sodium-ion batteries. Sodium. The stuff in your kitchen salt. The fourth most abundant element on Earth.

No cobalt. No nickel. No lithium. No rare earth drama.

Their Naxtra batteries deliver 500km+ range, work from -40°C to 70°C, and have passed the world's most rigorous battery safety certification. They're already going into passenger cars, trucks, and energy storage — at scale — right now.

This isn't a lab experiment. This is a commercial reality.

The question we should be asking isn't "when will green energy be affordable?"

It's: why are we still building a supposedly sustainable future on the same extractive logic as the old one?

CATL just proved we don't have to.

What do you think — does this change your view on the EV supply chain story?



Inside Climate News Climate Action Network-International Wedonthavetime.org Green Climate Fund Climate & Clean Air Coalition Climate-KIC

25/05/2026

London is pushing 34°C this week. And it's still May.
A city built for cold and damp — dark brick, single glazing, almost no home cooling — and laid it over concrete that traps heat and runs up to 10°C hotter than the land around it. At night, it never lets go.

Heat kills quietly: in top-floor flats, care homes, and the homes of people living alone. In 2022, an estimated 387 Londoners died in the heat — most of them elderly, isolated, or already ill. On current trends, that toll could rise 250% by 2050.

A 35°C day in May isn't a freak. It's a preview — proof our cities were engineered for a climate that no longer exists.
Adaptation isn't a someday agenda. It's infrastructure: shade where people actually live, cool-roof retrofits for the housing that bakes, cooling centres and check-ins for those most at risk.
The heat is already here. The only question is whether the city is.