We all know that it’s happening, but we don’t want to talk about it… Climate Leaders.
However, climate change is very real, and we need to keep talking about it. Not just about the problem, what has caused it, and what it will do to us.
We need to talk about the the solution and raise awareness around the radical actions needed.
Just signing the Paris Agreement isn’t enough. It looks more and more like the ambitious 1.5C target is out of reach, and that we will have to settle with the 2C target. The transition to cleaner energy is not happening at the required pace, in spite of ever falling prices on solar and wind energy.
According to the latest risk report from World Economic Forum, the environment is the no. 1 risk to the global society. We’ve only seen the beginning of it with forest fires and floods etc.
Eventually, climate change will lead to hunger, migration, war, unemployment, inequality, walls being built and much, much more. And still, people are not talking very much about it.
Luckily, we have Twitter. On Twitter you will find the most important online conversations around climate change. These conversations we need to listen to and amplify in our daily lifes.
Everything worthwhile reading, watching and knowing about climate change is shared on Twitter, and at the center of that debate we find a list key influencers. When they speak, people listen. The list includes politicians, Hollywood stars, journalists, scientists, authors, corporate people and many more.
So, without further ado, here’s the list of climate influencers you need to follow on Twitter. And, just for the record, they are not listed in any particular order.
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Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) – Journalist, columnist and author of This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine and No Logo.
Justin Gillis (@JustinHGillis) – Former lead writer on climate leaders science for The New York Times, now writing a book on the energy transition.
Sasja Beslik (@sasjabeslik) – Head of Group Sustainable Finance at Nordea. Also featured on this list of business thinker on Twitter.
Achim Steiner (@ASteiner) – Administrator at United Nations Development Programme. Former Director at Oxford Martin School, Oxford University. UN Under Secretary-General at UNEP.
Patricia Espinosa C (@PEspinosaC) – Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.
Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) – Greenpeace Canada climate leaders and Energy Campaigner focusing on tarsands, green jobs & solar.
Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) – Mayor of Paris and president of C40 Cities.
Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) – Actor and environmentalist.
Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) – Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and three-term mayor of New York City.
Assaad Razzouk (@AssaadRazzouk) – CEO at Sindicatum and contributor at Huffington Post.
Svein T veitdal (@tveitdal) – Climate lecturer and Director of Klima 2020. Former UN Director.
Jim Harris (@JimHarris) – Canadian author, environmentalist, and politician.
Damian Carrington (@dpcarrington) – Environment Editor at the Guardian
Brad Plumer (@bradplumer) – Climate reporter at New York Times. Former vox.com climate leaders reporter.
Kees van der Leun (@Sustainable2050) – Director at Navigant Energy.
Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) – Actor, filmmaker, and social activist.
Erik Solheim (@ErikSolheim) – Head of UN Environment.
Nick Nuttall (@Nick_Nuttall) – Director/Spokesperson Communications and Outreach UN Climate Change.
Alexander Verbeek (@Alex_Verbeek) – Founder of Institute for Planetary Security. Strategic Policy Advisor on Global Issues.
Richard McLellan (@RichardMcLellan) – CEO of NACC. Tweets about ecology, biodiversity, conservation, and sustainable agriculture.
Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) – Meteorologist and staff writer at Grist.org.
Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) – Climate Scientist, Professor & Director of the Penn State ESSC. Author of Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick & the Climate Wars, and The Madhouse Effect.
Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) – Sen. Bernie Sanders is the longest serving independent in congressional history.
Heidi Cullen (@HeidiCullen) – climate leaders scientist at ClimateCentral.org. Chief Science Advisor for the YEARSofLIVING project. Author of The Weather of the Future.
Pope Francis (@Pontifex) – His Holiness Pope Francis.
Christiana Figueres (@CFigueres) – Former Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.
Al Gore (@algore) – Politician and environmentalist. Served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) – Canada’s Minister of Environment & Climate Change.
Andrea Learned (@AndreaLearned) – Communications strategist specialising in influencer relations for climate action/impact nonprofits.
George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) – British writer, activist, climate columnist for Guardian.
Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) – Director/editor of Carbon Brief. Served 16 years at the Guardian. Author of A Life Stripped Bare, The Final Call, Will Jellyfish Rule the World?
Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) – MP for Brighton Pavilion, co-leader of the Green Party in UK.
Arik Ring (@arikring) – Expert consultant on solar and other clean-tech technologies, power plants and power systems.
Annie Leonard (@AnnieMLeonard) – Executive Director of Greenpeace USA. Creator of the StoryOfStuff video, book & community.
John Upton (@johnupton) – Journalist at ClimateCentral.org.
Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) – Author, educator, environmentalist and founder of 350.org.
Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) – Canadian climate scientist. Professor at Texas Tech University. Founder and CEO of ATMOS Research.
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Update: And the list of climate leaders goes on…
Of course we didn’t manage to do the perfect list in first try. Thanks to various user comments we now know that the following also belong on the list.
Elizabeth May (@ElizabethMay) – The leader of the Green Party of Canada. Author and politician.
Jason Box (@climate_ice) – Climatologist, glaciologist contemplating Greenland ice, Arctic and global climate issues.
Ray Wills (@ProfRayWills) – Researcher and adviser based in Perth, Australia.
Terry Hughes (@ProfTerryHughes) – Director of ARC Centre of excellence CoralCoE.
Adam Rogers (@AdamRogers2030) – Author, UNDP and SDGs.
Johan Rockström (@jrockstrom) – Executive director at Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson) – Professor at Stanford University and leading scholar on renewable energy.
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Anyone else missing on the list? Please let us know in the comments so we can review and add.
If you want to follow all of the above climate leaders all at once, you can subscribe to our Twitter list here. Below are the latest tweets from that list.
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