Earth Overshoot Day marks the launch of 100 Days of Possibility leading to COP26
July 29, 2021
Today, July 29th 2021 is Earth Overshoot Day. Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year.
Launched by Global Footprint Network, the Scottish EPA, and Schneider Electric, 100 Days of Possibility highlights actionable ways for each country, city, or business to ready themselves for the consequences of overshoot. These responses also #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day.
With a world still largely unprepared, and growing concerns about recent extreme weather events, representatives of national governments will gather 100 days from now at what has been deemed the last-chance summit for global climate action – the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow.
“There is no benefit in waiting to take action, regardless of what transpires at the COP,” Global Footprint Network CEO Laurel Hanscom said. “The pandemic has demonstrated that societies can shift rapidly in the face of disaster. But being caught unprepared brought great economic and human cost. When it comes to our predictable future of climate change and resource constraints, individuals, institutions and governments who prepare themselves will fare better. Global consensus is not a prerequisite to recognizing one’s own risk exposure, so let’s take decisive action now, wherever we are,” she added.
Although heralded by many, the green recovery is slow in coming and business-as-usual still prevails, fueled by short-term political and financial goals. This trajectory invariably leads to unmanageable economic risk, stranding all assets that are incompatible with climate change and increased resource constraints. Sustained prosperity and wellbeing, however, requires ingenuity to address humanity’s most pressing problem: ecological overshoot.
Fortunately, many solutions already exist today to reverse overshoot and support biological regeneration. 100DaysofPossibility.org will reveal opportunities every day up to COP26. Examples that #MoveTheDate include food waste reduction, refrigerants management, short-chain food systems, smart energy, low-carbon cement, municipal Footprint-driven development strategies, and low-impact ecotourism.
“We need three to five times more action to reduce CO2 emissions in view of meeting the Paris Agreement 1.5°C trajectory,” states Olivier Blum, Schneider Electric’s Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer. “To meet this challenge together, the focus must now be on concrete actions with short-term impact, namely the adoption of digital and electric technology and solutions that exist today.”
Read more on the launch of 100 Days of Possibility
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