Earth Day 2022: World requires 4.1 trillion dollars financing gap by 2050 to tackle climate change

This year’s Earth Day theme is to ‘Invest In Our Planet

The planet is losing 4.7 million hectares of forests every year .

Around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction.

New Delhi:  Today is Earth Day, which is observed every year on April 22nd to create awareness about environmental production and the issues our earth is facing. The day is also celebrated to mark the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest In Our Planet”. It highlights the urgent need to close the USD 4.1 trillion financing gap in nature by 2050 to meet the world’s climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation targets.

The theme will also cater to building healthy cities, countries, and economies. The objective of the theme is focused on accelerating solutions to combat the world’s greatest threat, climate change, and inspiring everyone to do their part.

Also known as Mother International Day, people all over the world join hands to fight the climate crisis and recognise what steps must be taken to protect the planet.

Through a resolution that was adopted in 2009, the General Assembly selected April 22 as International Mother Earth Day. However, the history attached to it dates back to the 1970s, when environmental protection was not yet a priority.

In 1972, the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm marked the beginning of a global awareness among people, living species, and the planet.

Much later, in 1992, the Statement of Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development were adopted at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit by more than 178 governments.

From then on, the UN celebrates this special day through a platform called “Harmony with Nature” for global sustainable development on International Mother Earth Day.

Mother Earth is clearly urging a call to action. Nature is suffering. Oceans are filled with plastic and turning more acidic. Extreme weather, like wildfires and floods, has affected millions of people. Even these days, we are still facing COVID-19, a worldwide health pandemic linked to the health of our ecosystem.

This is the first Mother Earth Day celebrated within the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet and its people. Restoring our damaged ecosystems will help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinction. But we will only succeed if everyone plays their part.

According to the UNEP, the planet is losing 4.7 million hectares of forests every year – an area larger than Denmark.

It is estimated that around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction.

Recently, the UNEP launched Act Now: Speak Up, a campaign that showcases how citizens can compel governments and businesses to up their climate game. Its goal is to instigate the kind of systemic change that limits planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which is considered the Earth’s red line.

In its most recent six assessment report, the IPPC raised the issue of global warming and warned that it will be impossible to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels unless fossil fuel infrastructure is rapidly phased out and finance is made available for clean and renewable energy sources.