The birth of the environmental movement Earth Day in 1970 has evolved into the largest civic event on Earth, activating billions of individuals across 192 countries to unite in a global effort to fight for a brighter future.

The BIG question is how many among the billions of individuals will continue to support social justice and actively safeguard our planet the next day and every other day of the year to drive action towards a just, climate-safe and regenerative future.

NOW is calling to extend this one day of global effort to every day of the year. We share one planet and our world is fast approaching half-time to the 2050 global goal when every country must achieve Net Zero emissions.

China, the world’s #1 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitter has pledged to deliver Net Zero a decade late by 2060, and India, the world’s 3rd largest GHG emitter has pledged to deliver Net Zero two decades late by 2070.

If governments and leaders are not willing to listen to warnings from science, hopefully they will listen to the destructive warnings from nature which will be unrelenting going forward.

WILL COUNTRIES DELIVER ON THE PARIS AGREEMENT?

Year end 2024 is the deadline identified by global scientists when carbon emissions must peak – the point at which emissions stop growing and start falling – worldwide to prevent 1.5°C (2.7°F) or even 2°C (3.6°F).

The 2015 international treaty on climate change, known as the Paris Climate Accord, was adopted by 198 parties at COP 21 to keep the rise in mean global temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, and science identified the important “red line” limit is 1.5 °C to avoid the worse impact of extreme climate disasters.

We have breached the 1.5 °C red line numerous times for 12 consecutive months in 2023 to 2024. By year end 2024, IF countries worldwide have not peaked their carbon emissions, this will tell citizens of the world that governments and business leaders have chosen a more high-risk and harmful path forward for everyone and the natural world.

MOST CRITICAL DECADE

This is the most critical decade for the world to unite and action low-carbon transition to protect nature and our shared home. There are many late but positive actions on clean energy and climate, and it is not enough to prevent the forecasted catastrophe.

Depending on who you ask by the end of 2023, COP28 was considered a success or a dismal failure. The 21-page “Global Stocktake” finally acknowledged that countries need to “transition away” from fossil fuels. There was also an agreement to pursue a tripling of renewable energy by 2030 and to accelerate energy efficiency improvements and methane-emission reduction but lacked clear goals and fixed timelines. Riddled with loopholes, the agreement was a compromise, and the unclear phrases worried many climate scientists and activists on what the “transition” of fuels means and how adaptation measures will be funded to enable poor and developing nations to adjust to climatic upheavals.

We have known for decades what we need to do to curb global warming: GHG emissions must fall by 43% compared with 2019 levels. But the combined climate pledges under the Paris Agreement by member countries, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), would mean only a 10% greenhouse gas emission cut, putting the world on track for 2.5°C or worse.

More urgent action and a compromise on Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement is overdue to boost climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement allows countries to voluntarily cooperate with each other to achieve emission reduction targets set out in their NDCs, which means that a country (or countries) will be able to transfer carbon credits earned from the reduction of GHG emissions to help one or more countries meet climate targets. Within Article 6, Article 6.2 creates the basis for trading in GHG emission reductions (or “mitigation outcomes”) across countries.

2024 ELECTIONS ADDRESSING CLIMATE ACTION?

At a time when global conflict is causing divisions, distractions and delays, many government elections are due to be held around the world which will have substantial implications for geopolitics, clean energy and climate action to achieve Net Zero or better.

This includes five of the world’s biggest carbon-emitting territories — the United States, India, Indonesia, Russia and the European Union — representing one-third of the world’s population and about the same proportion of human-made carbon emissions.

This follows the rival-less election in China last year when Xi Jinping secured a third term as president and he tightened his control of the world’s second-largest economy and the world’s largest emitter of human-made carbon emissions.

During the term of these elected country leaders, urgent action with a 2030 timeline is needed to reduce carbon emissions by 50% and slash methane emissions by over 30%. Most will also need to phase out and axe fossil fuel production plans, ramp up clean energy investments 2.5-fold to triple renewables and double energy efficiency, accelerate the electrification of energy demand sectors, and halt deforestation.

“WE WILL TRY”

At this pivotal moment for our world, we know that we have a choice to collectively safeguard our planet or choose to speed in the wrong direction.

It is a concern that the global response after COP28 is not an emphatic “IT MUST BE NOW that we achieve Net Zero emissions or better (Net Negative Emissions) on time.”

Instead, the global response can be boiled down into three pledge words that says, “We will try”.

In our lives, we’ve heard these three pledge words used in relationships, in households, in schools, at the workplace and at the global COP Summit to acknowledge the problem, but most of the time it is gravely lacking in urgency, conviction, commitment and delivery timelines.

The year 2023 has already been declared the hottest on record for both land and ocean, and glaciers in both the Arctic and Antarctic are melting at unprecedented rates.

The three pledge words “We will try” is not good enough for island nations and low-lying coastal countries already suffering the effects of sea-level rise, the places most immediately threatened by climate change. Nor is it good enough for the nearly 2 billion people who are currently impacted by drought, and for the thousands who have died due to extreme heat, floods, storms, and wildfires linked to climate change.

Our action, or lack of action, speak volumes. Commit to making one Earth Day action everyday. It must be NOW!