Earth Overshoot Day marks the launch of 100 Days of Possibility leading to COP26

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.

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Global Footprint Network, Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Jul 26, 2021, 00:36 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., July 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 100 Days of Possibility is unveiled today, Earth Overshoot Day, by sustainability leaders Global Footprint Network and the Scottish EPA. The initiative features proven and scalable solutions that contribute to bringing humanity's Ecological Footprint in balance with the biological resources that the planet's natural ecosystems can sustainably regenerate.

Fighting the climate and resource crisis will be easier with international cooperation. This is the promise COP26 in Glasgow carries. Yet, if the conference under-delivers, the need for companies, cities, and countries to prepare themselves for the future heightens and becomes even more existential. 100 Days of Possibility highlights ways for each country, city, or business to ready themselves for a world increasingly defined by 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 – 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," stated 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."

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.

Full press release

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SOURCE Global Footprint Network, Scottish Environment Protection Agency