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.

To achieve the goal of zero net emissions by 2050, GHG emissions must already be reduced by 50% by 2030. As with a balanced budget in the long term, it is essential to take immediate, concrete and continuous reduction measures, otherwise the target can never be achieved by the set deadline. Let’s start.

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

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

Person holding smartphone
33 kg can be compared to the weight a loaf of cheese. It means that for each smartphone produced we send a loaf of cheese in the atmosphere …

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

SourcesCo2 Equivalent kg
One car4000 - 7000
One personal computer165
One smartphone33
One e-mail0.020
One kg of office paper1.2
One Plastic bottle (33 cl.)0.070
Vegetarian meal1.7
Non-vegetarian meal3.6
Coffee (1cup)0.113
Green Electricity (kWh)0.007
1 km by petrol car0.160
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