Time’s up…
To quote Winston Churchill: “Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have entered upon a period of danger. The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedients of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences …We cannot avoid this period, we are in it now…”
Enter the Extinction Rebellion. They may be the crazy fringe. Or they may be the only sane people in the room.
The world has changed. Today sustainability is an existential threat to the global economy and that means the scale and speed of change required is profoundly different.
Given this, sustainability is only “good for business” for today’s major companies if they can transform – either dramatically in how their business operates or in some cases (e.g. oil majors) transforming into different companies entirely.
When talking about risks to the future of civilisation, accepting failure is not really a strategic option.
By engaging the current system’s strengths and capacities, a rapid and revolutionary transformation could be delivered quickly and globally. I see a way to replace most of today’s failing business models and companies with new ones that will deliver what we urgently need – a circular economy, reducing inequality and preventing climate change tipping us over the edge. It won’t solve all our problems or their causes, but it will buy us time to address them.
Initially published in 2016 by one of the key proponents of a climate emergency, the USA based organisation The Climate Mobilization. Their Victory Plan explores how the USA could eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions at wartime speed, contribute to a global effort to restore a safe climate, and reverse ecological overshoot through massive WWII-scale mobilization.
Arguably the first data-backed action plan for a climate emergency mobilisation, this acclaimed and controversial journal paper describes and quantifies the global actions required to limit the warming of our planet to 1 degree.
