The world is waking up to the devastating effects and long-term damage that rising CO2 levels can cause in the earth’s atmosphere and increasing global temperatures. In the past couple of years, we have seen record-breaking temperatures all across the globe and extreme weather wreaking havoc and causing large-scale destruction from wildfires to flooding to coastal erosion and snowstorms.
Global leaders are slow to respond to the crisis, but there is an ever-growing community of professionals and companies taking action, regardless of the lack of leadership. In this blog, we will highlight 5 of the most exciting and noteworthy trends in the field of sustainability we can expect in 2023 and beyond.
What is Sustainability?
In the most basic of definitions, sustainability, according to the Brundtland Report published by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987, defines sustainability as “the ability to satisfy the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’
It can further be defined as providing three critical aspects that run in tandem: Environmental, Social and Economical. In a more simplistic form, we can refer to the 3 P’s: People, Planet and Profit.
All three of these aspects must be balanced to stimulate long-term growth, ensure healthy environments for users (since we spend 90% of our time in the built environment) and minimise our ecological and environmental impact to protect our planet’s Biodiversity.
Corporate Net-Zero commitments are rising
With growing investments from leading nations in the world and approximately US$3.5bn set aside by the US government for the development of carbon capture technologies, the drive towards a net-zero world is accelerating. According to ‘Economist Impact’, we can expect more organisations like the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative and the World Bank to commit to better regulations and standards for carbon credit. From nature-based strategies like reforestation and mangrove planting to technological advancement like Direct-carbon capture, we can expect this move to Net-Zero to accelerate exponentially in the coming years.
Resiliance and Adaptation
Last year at COP27, countries finally established a framework for a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and the EU set up a loss and damage fund to aid countries most affected by climate change.
This means that there are soon to be multiple adaptation projects all across most affected countries to help them prepare for future disasters as well as aid in becoming more resilient
Circular Economy
Tackling plastic pollution will continue to build up steam. 175 Countries have signed a treaty to end plastic pollution in 2022, and the intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) will hold workshops in 2023 to adopt new guidelines in 2024.
The move to eliminate chemical pollutants in the environment is aiding the drive towards a more circular economy and will only accelerate in the coming years. This will require multi-stakeholder partnerships between public and private sectors and amongst scientists, communities and consumers.
The EU taxonomy on sustainable activities also started to include circular economic principles as of 1st January 2023, further accelerating the drive to scrutinise corporate activities.
Ecosystems and Resource management
Following water-related disasters such as the flooding in Pakistan and Droughts in Europe in 2022, water management will surely be one of the top talking points in the coming year. With the UN-Water conference is set to be held in conjunction with World Water Week in March and the World Ocean Summit at the end of February.
There is still much to be done to create a legal framework to guide and control global resources. Still, momentum is building towards a sustainable ocean economy and better resource management for the future.
Social Stability
With rising food and energy costs globally, the cost-of-living crisis is rising further up the sustainability agenda. Developing nations realise that the need to decarbonise is suddenly aligned with the ‘social’ dimension of climate action, but it’s challenging to solve with ever-increasing complexity.
Bringing workers and citizens aboard the climate action agenda will remain a challenge, especially when it comes to vital policies like carbon taxes required to reach climate targets that may continue to face backlash from cash-strapped consumers during the ongoing global recession.
Conclusion
There are a lot still of work to be done to solve global weather change but with momentum building, 2023 is said to be a great year for global climate action.
