ince 1973, the World Environment Day is celebrated each year on June 5 for awareness raising and advocacy to protect the environment. The United Nations Environment Programme leads the effort. Last year, Pakistan was the global host of the event. This year Sweden is hosting it globally. This year’s theme is “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature.” The campaign’s slogan is “Only One Earth.” It was the same slogan 50 years ago for the 1972 Stockholm conference.

This means that we have only one Earth to live on and we have to keep it safe for generations to come. The theme is focusing on CNP Actions, i.e., climate actions, nature actions and pollution actions.

The demand for natural resources is currently 1.6 times the sustainable supply. The gap between what we need to spend to adapt and what we are spending is widening. The estimated cost of adaptation continues to rise and could reach $280-500 billion per year by 2050 for developing countries alone. First, we need to look at where we stand when it comes to CNP Actions.

The latest report of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has declared the climate emergency as “Code Red for Humanity”. The green house gas emissions are threatening lives, economies, health and food. The world needs to cut emissions to 30 gigatonnes annually to be livable.

Most countries are behind their targets of reducing emissions under the Paris Agreement. The top global emitters China (27.8 percent), United States of America (12.7 percent), India (7.3 percent), Russian Federation (4.7 percent), Japan (2.6 percent) and Brazil (2.5 percent) must act now to limit global warming.

The increasing global warming is causing heatwaves, droughts, flooding affecting livelihoods and forcing millions to migrate. Wellbeing of about 3.2 billion people is affected due to ecosystem degradation. Also, 87 percent of inland wetlands have disappeared since 1700. About 80 percent biodiversity loss is due to the food systems. Air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths annually.

According to an estimate, 3 billion people are at risk because they don’t know enough about the health of surface and groundwater resources. As per estimates, plastic pollution will increase 23-37 million tonnes by 2040 in aquatic ecosystems which is a serious threat to marine life.

Moving forward, the world needs to cut the emissions by half by 2030 to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. This must be done by managing land resources, building smart cities and curbing deforestation and food waste, promoting nature-based solutions and addressing issues of transport sector. As per United Nations Environment Programme, a six-sector approach can be adopted to reduce 30 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

The latest report of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has declared the climate emergency as “Code Red for Humanity”. The green house gas emissions are threatening lives, economies, health and food.

First, energy sector can reduce 12.5 gigatonnes carbon emissions annually by using the available technology and practices. Every country needs to commit more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and energy transition strategies, should halt polices that support the fossil fuel industry including excessive subsidies. Countries should promote and encourage policies that incentivise renewable energy.

Second, industry can reduce 7.3 gigatonnes of carbon emissions annually by imposing and strengthening energy efficiency standards, pricing carbon, promoting the use of efficient and renewable heating and cooling and incentivising less emissions of greenhouse gases.

The private sector can also play an important role in this regard by scaling up research and development to create new options for low carbon industrial processes as well as by auditing the energy use and resource efficiency of operations to identify cost effective high impact reductions.

Third, agricultural, food and waste sector can reduce emissions up to 6.7 gigatons by promoting climate-smart and sustainable agriculture practices and using land resources sustainability. Measuring food loss, creating waste baselines and implementing strategies to reduce food waste are some of the crucial measures to achieve these targets. Also, informing consumers and producers about food choices and how to reduce food loss waste across the supply chain. As individuals we can shift to plant-based diets to help reduce emissions.

Fourth, adopting nature-based solutions could reduce 5.9 gigatones of emissions annually. This can be achieved by meeting targets of reducing net zero deforestation. Governments need to stop policies and subsidies that incentivise deforestation and peatlands degradation and promote their restoration.

The world needs to meet two primary goals of the Bonn challenge, i.e., restoration of 150 million hectares of forests and other landscapes by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. These actions can not only improve air quality but also bolster food and water security and shore up rural economies.

Fifth, the transport sector contributes a lot to the air pollution. By addressing this sector, we can reduce emissions up to 4.7 gigatonnes annually. This can be done by using cycling and electric vehicles. Governments need to invest more in public transport which not only contributes less to the emissions but is also safer for women and children. Governments should incentivise a transition to zero-emission transportation, including for cars, taxis, buses, trucks and trains.

Sixth, investment in climate resilient infrastructure can reduce emissions by 5.9 gigatonnes. This can be achieved by mainstreaming sustainable building in urban and rural planning, promoting the installation of heat pumps, solar cells and heat storage technology and setting carbon-neutral building standards for new construction.

Developing smart systems to integrate buildings, mobility and energy systems, including traffic management, distributed EV-charging and integrated planning processes would be of great help in reducing emissions and energy waste in urban areas.

Although individual actions matter, bringing about transformative environmental change requires collective efforts and sustainable resource use. There is only one Earth and there is no Planet B.

The writer is environmental expert at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). She tweets @S_Maryam8