Looking for easy and simple ways to make high-impact, achievable steps to reduce your carbon pollution and persuade others to do the same? Here are 16 actions:
These actions, derived from experts and research by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) alongside others, are featured as part the Count Us In campaign, a diverse coalition of culture, faith, sport, cities and businesses.
Organizers hope the activities and support of the partners will inspire one billion people to take practical steps to reduce carbon pollution and challenge leaders to act more boldly on climate.
Individual action can make a significant impact. Count Us In organizers estimate that if 1 billion people take practical action in their own lives, they could reduce as much as 20 per cent of global carbon emissions.
“We are in the midst of three planetary crises – the climate crisis, the nature crisis, and the pollution and waste crisis. Fuelled by unsustainable consumption and production, the three crises are destroying the natural systems that allow our economies to thrive. In this decade that will define how we live on the planet, we need to crowd in people and action like never before. Every individual action counts and must be counted,” said UNEP’s Executive Director Inger Andersen.
Keep track of your impact
Whether you sign up on the Count Us In platform or through a partner platform like the United Nations #ActNow campaign, you can count your step alongside millions of others.
Daily tips and a mechanism to track your habits are available through a new online #ActNow application from AWorld. Begin your sustainable journey here:
Count Us In was launched at TED Countdown, a global initiative powered by TED and Future Stewards to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis.
Related event: TEDxUNEP: Racing to Zero with Higher Education
UNEP and the climate emergency
While there are now high levels of awareness of climate change, there remains confusion and misinformation about what actions are necessary and wide misapprehension that climate action will have a negative impact on peoples’ lives.
UNEP stands at the core of the action in the fight against climate change. Its work cuts across the fields of science, policy, technology and finance. The organization works with countries to pursue low-emission development and boost their capacity to adapt and be resilient to climate heating through nature-based solutions.
