How is Climate change treating you & what is your choice of words and actions on this Earth Day?
I was not even born then but in 1975, scientists perhaps first coined the term 'Global warming' to alert humanity about the impending issue of climate change and its repercussions on the interconnected ecosystem.
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Today marks the ninth Earth Day since the Paris Agreement was established.
So, how are we faring in our endeavors to combat climate change? Have our efforts in finance, technology, and capacity building been adequate to meet the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement? Are you familiar with and informed about your country's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and its progress toward reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions?
Are we there yet?
The answer is not straightforward; progress varies across different regions and aspects. While we excel in certain areas, we fall short in others. Our journey through this transition is challenging; we recognize the need for greater speed and determination. However, comparing our current position to where we stood a few years ago reveals an acceleration in our efforts.
Negativity is counterproductive.
It's crucial to maintain a constructive outlook and concentrate on the necessary actions at a suitable pace, fostering networks to promote positive change. Although the transition is extensive and uneven, we must persevere. Despite occasional feelings of urgency, particularly in 2024, regarding the daunting political landscape, there is promising economic momentum driving the shift. The increasing affordability and scalability of renewable energy technologies, such as solar, wind power and battery development are steering us away from fossil fuels.
If you looked at price and performance - Global energy grid is doing very well, energy transition is at a pace much higher than you read about it. Solar, wind, battery and other new technology is fueling it, there is no going back to fossil fuels - it will not make financial sense even if you did not care about 'saving wild life'!
We are going through the cycle of turbulent time. While navigating this turbulence, the alignment between the pace of change and our choices may not always synchronize promptly.
Yet, it's imperative to continue striving within the existing framework of resources and policies.
Delaying progress toward a Net Zero transition due to political inertia may render elected governments irrelevant in serving their people's interests.
Public opinion plays a pivotal role in shaping policies, and vice versa, especially those of a regulatory nature. Are existing regulations sufficient, and to what extent have they been urgently implemented? Recent directives, like the EU's corporate sustainability due diligence regulatory directive, reflect a growing consensus for regulatory action among businesses and the public alike.
For those who think all these standards and frameworks and policies are too much - here is my view:
we don't need policies as an exercise, we need to be able to extract the benefits from policies in order to transition to net zero
Yes, we could live with lesser policies- if we all complied - a utopian world, which unfortunately does not exist.
Regarding personal sentiments amidst these changes, it's understandable to feel anxious specially when you read headlines that say 'we have two years to save the planet?'
However, dwelling on fear or resisting positive policy changes only exacerbates our challenges.
Lets go back slightly in the past, shall we?
scientific studies and predictions are a good 'learn from the mistakes' moments, it was just 18 years ago that 'An Inconvenient Truth' a documentary was released in 2006. come back to the present day - almost everything that was mentioned in that documentary has either manifested or tested and verified to be true reflection of our trajectory. May be if Al Gore had won the US election we could be on a different path to mending climate change, globally.
Our election outcomes have far reaching impact and sometimes globally if its a US election!
we have focused a great deal on terrorism threats in the last 30 years but we are not doing enough to the real existential threat that we ourselves have created -called 'The Climate change'.
Did you know - climate-related stress, evidenced by pre-traumatic syndrome, is increasingly recognized among individuals due to frequent extreme weather events.
Despite this, we must focus on proactive measures rather than succumbing to fear-induced paralysis.
A word of caution and advise: Legacy industry has put a narrative out there for you to find it difficult to leave your creature comfort, a change in status quo threatens their business, change is detrimental to their profits - so you will continue to see creation of 'doubt' around science and policies. But I do hope that you know by now that its cheaper to save the planet and costly to destroy it.
We possess the capacity to effect meaningful change collectively.
I think - We can do better. Rather we CAN Do better and More.
we all can create a better world.
But first let me ask you, at work, What is the contextual communication in your organisation?
does climate change only exist for chief sustainability officer's team and in annual reports or has it been broken down to your job level as well?
I believe every job is a climate job, to every personnel working in corporations in BAU, I would urge you to make efforts during your performance discussion (goal setting up and assessment) that it links to your role's actions/tasks/decisions contributing towards your companies sustainability development goals, climate risk mitigation, ESG.
The change need not come from top, the heavier bottom can drive change too! Ask and you may succeed at changing your firm's culture.
Post 2007 global financial crisis, many banks and financial institutes changed their risk management strategy and trained all their enterprise employees on 'Risk is for everyone to manage'.
Organizations should foster a culture of engagement on transformational agendas, integrating sustainability goals into performance metrics. Every individual has a role to play in advancing sustainability, be it through activism, investment choices, or daily consumption habits.
You need big push to make giant changes. Now is the time.
Lastly, whether an enterprises or individual we all need to make changes and think about how we are doing on our promises for making this world a better place for future generations.
Choice is a powerful tool.
Every Single Day you could use your personal agency to speak about change as an active choice-
As voter
As activist
As investor
As banker
As retail consumer
As producers and creators
As farmer
As educator
As Transformation consultant
As politician
As student
As professionals in any stream
As daydreamer
As adventurist
As caregiver
As peacekeeper
As livelihood-protector
As human
Take your pick. Make the right Choice.
Happy Earth day to you.