2050Today
Climate Change is in your hands
By measuring your greenhouse gas emissions and by reducing them accordingly you can be the change you want to see as of today
2050Today is here to reverse the trend with your institution
Why it matters :
The planet has entered a state of emergency with unprecedented risk of damage to humanity and the environment. Global warming and the collapse of biodiversity are having fatal consequences on an exponential scale. Urgent action is needed at all levels – everywhere and now – to confront the threat.
United for zero emissions
Imagine a world where climate action for zero emissions is the natural course of action for everyone, entity or individual. 2050Today is about measuring our greenhouse gas emissions and reducing them accordingly to bring about the change we want today.
United by this vision, 60 institutions in international Geneva have decided to take action to confront the challenge of climate change by implementing 2050Today. Permanent Missions, international organisations and civil society entities have committed to measure and reduce their emissions while confirming their willingness to cooperate together for effective, inclusive and sustainable climate action.
Joining or supporting 2050Today means participating in a coalition of entities resolutely committed to reducing emissions and concerned about acting in accordance with a sustainable planet for future generations.
Climate news
How Forests Near and Far Benefit People in Cities
A New Yorker may not think about the forested Catskills Mountain Range upstate as she pours a glass of water. Londoners probably don’t consider the Amazon rainforest as they watch the rain falling on city parks. And folks in Addis Ababa are probably not thinking about the Congo Basin as they eat injera, an Ethiopian staple made from the grain teff.
And yet, forests near and far affect these urbanites’ daily lives far more than most people realize.
Source : World Resources Institute
November 30, 2022
Countries Want to Plant Trees to Offset Their Carbon Emissions, but There Isn’t Enough Land on Earth to Grow Them
Researchers behind the Land Gap Report say we can’t plant our way out of global warming—and it’s disingenuous to pretend that we can.
Source : Inside Climate News
November 2, 2022
Is the Amazon rainforest on the verge of collapse?
The Amazon has existed as a dense and humid rainforest teeming with life for at least 55 million years. But in a new paper, scientists claim that over 75% of the ecosystem has been losing resilience since the early 2000s due to climate change. This process appears to be most prominent in areas that are closer to human activity, as well as in those receiving less rainfall.
Source : The Conversation
November 2, 2022
New Data Confirms: Forest Fires Are Getting Worse
New data on forest fires confirms what has been long feared: Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning nearly twice as much tree cover today as they did 20 years ago.
Using data from a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland, the World Resources Institute calculated that forest fires now result in 3 million more hectares of tree cover loss per year compared to 2001 — an area roughly the size of Belgium — and accounted for more than a quarter of all tree cover loss over the past 20 years.
Source : World Resources Institute
October 24, 2022
Fashion, beauty…and the world’s climate change challenges
Here are some pieces to help bring you up to speed on the fascinating nexus between your wardrobe, fashion, and beauty…and the world’s climate change challenges.
Source : Yale Climate Connections
October 24, 2022
Envisioning the Battery Data Genome, a central data hub for battery innovation
Back in the 1990s, researchers undertook the Human Genome Project, a 13-year journey designed to enable a new era of innovation in medicine. By assembling and sharing vast amounts of data to uncover the secrets behind the genetic determinants of disease, this project transformed the medical industry and led to innumerable breakthroughs. Now, researchers are extending that model of innovation to battery science with an eye on impact at a global scale.
Source : Argonne US National Laboratory
October 14, 2022
‘Decarbonisation is too expensive’ – how to sell climate change action to bean counters
The three most prevalent myths about tackling climate change allege that transitioning to renewable energy jacks up household bills, requires massive amounts of government subsidy and creates mass unemployment. These concerns are all (thankfully) false.
Source : The Conversation
October 7, 2022
Insects will struggle to keep pace with global temperature rise – which could be bad news for humans
Animals can only endure temperatures within a given range. The upper and lower temperatures of this range are called its critical thermal limits. As these limits are exceeded, an animal must either adjust or migrate to a cooler climate.
Source : The Conversation
October 7, 2022
Study Finds Global Warming Fingerprint on 2022’s Northern Hemisphere Megadrought
Long heatwaves in Eurasia and North America baked soils dry, threatening ecosystems and food production, and contributing to a cascade of compounding impacts that can reduce power supplies and increase heat deaths.
Source : Inside Climate News
October 6, 2022
‘This is what a river should look like’: Dutch rewilding project turns back the clock 500 years
Europe’s largest river restoration is making changes across the entire landscape, bringing benefits to wildlife and people
Source : The Guardian
September 22, 2022
Championing Its Heritage, Canada Inches Toward Its Goal of Planting 2 Billion Trees
Two years into a reforestation campaign, the country has yet to meet 1 percent of its objective, sowing worry about the level of financial commitment from the government. And some fret that planting trees may not be an optimal strategy for countering climate change or fulfilling other environmental goals.
Source : Inside Climate News
October 3, 2022
Jointly, we participate in the transition
Time to act
To keep global warming below 1.5°, we must at all costs avoid depleting our carbon budget. All organisations must therefore reduce their emissions as much as possible – and as soon as possible – in order to comply with the IPCC special report’s warning to limit global warming to 1.5°C. At current emissions levels, this budget will be exhausted within a few years and well before 2030. Every moment is counting and the countdown is not stopping. So the time to act is today.
Act now ! Amanda Gorman, American Youth Poet Laureate
That’s how fast the carbon clock is ticking
The MCC Carbon Clock shows how much CO2 can be released into the atmosphere to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C and 2°C, respectively. Once the remaining time has elapsed these thresholds will be exceeded. With just a few clicks, you can compare the estimates for both temperature targets and see how much time is left in each scenario.
2050Today
Carbon footprint
The world total carbon footprint in 2019 due to human emissions was around 37 gigatons of CO2 eq. These huge emissions are the accumulation of many and many … billions of big and small emissions that are the result of life styles and consumption.
To reach net zero emissions by 2050, the individual carbon footprint should not exceed 700 kg/ year of CO2 eq.
For the time being, the average individual footprint in Switzerland is 14 t CO2 eq. It means, we should divide our carbon footprint by 20. Let’s start and take up the challenge today.
Here is the carbon footprint of some everyday life aspects, be it the production of goods or the consumption of services (average values):
The weight of CO2
160 g can be compared to the weight a banana. It means that for each km by car we send a CO2 banana in the atmosphere …
Just imagine how it would be if these bananas were left on the roads
| Sources | Co2 Equivalent kg |
|---|---|
| One car | 4000 - 7000 |
| One personal computer | 165 |
| One smartphone | 33 |
| One e-mail | 0.020 |
| One kg of office paper | 1.2 |
| One Plastic bottle (33 cl.) | 0.070 |
| Vegetarian meal | 1.7 |
| Non-vegetarian meal | 3.6 |
| Coffee (1cup) | 0.113 |
| Green Electricity (kWh) | 0.007 |
| 1 km by petrol car | 0.160 |
| 1 km by train (in Switzerland) | 0.007 |
The global human footprint
The carbon footprint is only one part of the impact of human beings on planet Earth. To get a glimpse of our global impact, take a look at the graphic below.
We should also keep in mind how quickly our impact has grown. The Earth, our only available habitat, appeared some 4.5 billion years ago. The ancestors of human beings first appeared less than 10 million years ago.
In other words, if you were to compress the entire history of the Earth into 24 hours, the first Homo sapiens would only arrive in the last few seconds and the advent of agriculture would only be a blink of an eye before midnight.
To have a closer look, follow Living in the Age of Humans, a series of stories that examine the impacts of human presence on Earth.
The human impact so far
Major environmental-change categories expressed as a percentage relative to intact baseline. Red indicates percentage of category damaged, lost or otherwise affected; blue indicates percentage intact, remaining or unaffected. Frontiers in Conservation Science
