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.
Global Footprint Network CEO, Laurel Hanscom, said: "There is no benefit in waiting to take action, regardless of what transpires at the COP. 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."
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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.
Olivier Blum, Schneider Electric's Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, said: "We need three to five times more action to reduce CO2 emissions in view of meeting the Paris Agreement 1.5°C trajectory. 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."
Opportunities stem from all sectors of the economy: commercially available technologies or services, local governments' development strategies, national public policies, or best practices supported by civil society initiatives and academia.
"Adopting one-planet prosperity as our true North has transformed the way our regulatory agency interacts with, and supports, our Scottish business community. Beyond enforcing the law, we help them envision what their success will look like in a decarbonized and dematerialized economy and make strategic decisions accordingly," the Scottish EPA CEO Terry A'Hearn said.
