From mortgages to food prices: Climate Week Prague puts climate change into everyday terms
Prague is hosting a week of debates, workshops and public events devoted to climate change and its impact on society and the economy. Linda Zeilina-Cross, founder and CEO of the International Sustainable Finance Centre, tells RPI the aim is to open a discussion that too often takes place behind closed doors.
Climate change is discussed constantly by politicians, scientists and business leaders. But much of that conversation takes place far away from ordinary citizens. Climate Week Prague, which begins in the Czech capital this week, is trying to bridge that gap.
One of the organisations behind the initiative is the International Sustainable Finance Centre, or ISFC. Its founder and CEO Linda Zeilina-Cross says the idea was inspired partly by similar climate weeks in cities such as New York and London.
“The whole idea of Climate Week is to create a momentum, an opportunity for different parts of society and policymaking, professional circles and so on. It’s an all-society event, or series of events, with different levels of accessibility that allow the widest possible number of people to engage on the topic. For some people, maybe it’s more interesting to talk about food and agriculture. Others work in finance. So the idea was: if we have these kinds of weeks in New York and London, Prague, as a large intellectual hub in the region, should have its own.”
Change happening behind closed doors
The event comes at a time when climate policy has become increasingly politically contentious. The European Green Deal in particular has faced resistance in Central and Eastern Europe. Zeilina-Cross, however, argues that the political debate can obscure changes already taking place within the economy.
“What people don't realise is that the policies and the work that's already been done in the past is now translating into a lot of changes happening behind closed doors. How do they impact the consumer or the average citizen? Well, let's take Hungary – and Latvia actually also has this. If I go to a bank and want to buy a house and get a mortgage, I can borrow more against the exact same income if I am getting a greener property.”
The reason is practical: a more energy-efficient home should mean lower bills and may retain its value better, making the borrower less risky from the bank's point of view. It is one example of climate considerations gradually entering everyday financial decisions.
Making climate change less abstract
Zeilina-Cross acknowledges that supporters of climate action have not always been successful in explaining its practical economic relevance. “It started out as a very theoretical discussion about climate change. It's not very easy to grasp – not very good storytelling and not very good translation between the high-level discussion and theory into much more practical solutions and policymaking. And that maybe has given the topic a bit of a negative perception that people do a lot of blah blah, but then nothing happens.”
The effects of climate change are, however, becoming increasingly tangible. According to data cited by the Czech project Fakta o klimatu, Prague recorded only seven tropical nights, when temperatures did not fall below 20 degrees Celsius, between 1961 and 1990. Over the following 35 years, there were 165.
Heat and drought can also have direct economic consequences. Zeilina-Cross points to falling agricultural production and the resulting impact on food prices as one way climate change eventually reaches ordinary households.
There is nevertheless an apparent contradiction in Czech public opinion. Concern about climate change, particularly among younger people, does not necessarily translate into support for ambitious climate policies. Zeilina-Cross believes part of the explanation lies in people's resistance to rapid change and in the tendency of political debate to offer simple explanations for complicated problems.
“If people don't understand it, there is usually a backlash. And if people are a bit annoyed and angry about how expensive things are getting, that the job prospects aren't as good, then it is easy to position the blame on sustainability rather than the fact that maybe we are too reliant on oil and energy imports from countries that are highly volatile now. It's a very uncomfortable conversation. And people in politics, especially the messaging, tend to be very oversimplified and easy. Unfortunately, often with an easy answer, you don't necessarily get the correct one.”
That is also part of the rationale behind Climate Week Prague: bringing scientists, policymakers, businesses, investors and the public into the same conversation and making climate change less of an abstract debate and more about decisions affecting everyday life.
