COOL

Women and girl leaders around the world are guiding organisations that are reducing – and over time reversing – the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.

Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, Australia, has vowed to reduce city government emissions by 70% by 2030. Already, she's made Sydney the first Australian city to be declared carbon neutral.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit activist, sees her indigenous people as climate change sentinels for the world, leveraging their observations, experience, and knowledge of the Arctic to benefit people everywhere.

Fifteen thousand Sri Lankan women are raising and planting "miracle trees," mangroves, which sequester five times more carbon dioxide than tropical trees in the Amazon Rainforest.

Nelleke van der Puil, Vice President of Materials at LEGO, is developing plastic made with plants instead of oil, transforming her company's products.

Women are especially effective leaders when it comes to combating global warming. Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement, report that "Nations with greater female representation in positions of power have smaller climate footprints. Companies with women on their executive boards are more likely to invest in renewable energy and develop products that help solve the climate crisis. Women legislators vote for environmental protections almost twice as frequently as men, and women who lead investment firms are twice as likely to make investment decisions based on how companies treat their employees and the environment."

For this book, Paola Gianturco and her 12-year-old granddaughter and co-author, Avery Sangster, interviewed and photographed heads of grassroots organisations, activists, politicians, corporate executives, scholars, and presidents of nonprofits in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Tanzania, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Canada, and Hong Kong. All of them are using intelligence, creativity, and courage.

COOL: Women Leaders Reversing Global Warming tells their important, inspiring stories in their own words and suggests action steps so you can join them on this existential journey.