All posts by : Prachi Jain

Imagine a scenario from 2028 or 2029 where China amounts for nearly 20% of global GHG emissions. California has imposed permanent rationing on water and other resources; malaria cases have been reported amongst tourists from major European tourist destinations African continent faces severe heat waves.

Humankind is facing one of the most significant challenges of modern times. Our ways of living have led to the industrial revolution boom but have damaged the ecosystem to a great extent. Today, the damage has reached an extent where the loss is irreparable and irreversible. With the current knowledge of climate science, it is a grim situation that the world is facing and will significantly impact the “doing good business” significantly.

Climate change will directly impact companies, i.e., on the infrastructure, investments, procurements, to name a few. As legislation becomes comprehensive and voters become aware of the problem, the government will respond to the consequences of weather change and the costs of adaptive policies. Though the law and the regulatory framework for the companies to operate, it is the political will and the swiftness to implement such laws to bring the desired changes.

Organizations must create a robust legal base and collaborate with the political leadership to bring the laws that help in curbing GHG emissions. In this regard, it is not surprising that the company’s approach to climate change will go beyond operational effectiveness, becoming more strategic.

If the government achieve its commitments, there will be a domino effect as expectations of entrepreneurship, investors “diligence on the risks of climate change, and the role of state and local authorities change. Climate change-related issues will also arise in company law concerning the disclosure of risks related to climate change.

Companies “willingness to disclose climate change-related management activities and greenhouse gas emissions have increased dramatically in recent years. Shareholders have become aware and demand to adopt transparency and action on the effects of climate change on companies and organizations, on GHG emissions. Although it is difficult to determine how much a company should disclose, it is clear that many companies do not intend to disclose the risks of climate change.

When companies talk about the risks of climate change, it is very vague and incomplete, thus, making it difficult for the investors to seek a severe assessment of the risks of changing climate. If companies believe climate change in one part of the world will have less impact than another nation or continent, they will likely underestimate the risks they face in their global supply chains and markets.

Companies in the energy, transport, agriculture and forestry sectors are particularly vulnerable. They may face increased pressure to disclose how they view and deal with the impact of climate change on their business models and value chains. The act of disclosure can help companies identify and mitigate the risks of climate change.

The consequences of climate change and environmental constraints are not limited to adverse effects on a company’s financial profile. At the same time, an aggressive climate policy enforced by government bodies at the international level to combat climate change from an economic point of view is likely to be the best deal in the long run. Businesses should try to avoid politicizing their business concerning climate change, but they must support policies and policymakers committed to reducing emissions.

For both humanitarian and business reasons, companies of all sizes must take action. Companies can take a position by assessing emissions, developing climate action plans, setting emission reduction targets, measuring progress and supporting measures that advance climate protection. While many companies view climate change as a matter of corporate social responsibility, business leaders must approach climate change as a business decision and focus on strategic threats and opportunities. We conclude that climate change is an emerging problem and that businesses and the public health community need to work together to lead. Although individual managers may disagree about the immediate and significant impact of the problem, companies must act.

Voluntary emission reductions are more important than public policies to achieve the pace and scale of reductions needed to limit the worst effects of climate change. By taking the lead in helping regions anticipate and mitigate climate change risks, businesses can advance their interests and build goodwill toward the communities where they operate. In addition, companies taking the lead in climate change over the next 20 years will reduce emissions and gain credibility amongst employees, customers, and suppliers and set up a path to corporate leadership.

Climate change is on the global agenda, prompting politicians and business leaders around the world to act. Unfortunately, it hampers efforts by companies and governments to reduce CO2 emissions while their prices rise. Climate change will damage economies, destroy populations, increase resource scarcity, and impact the cost of doing business.

In the end, companies should be ready to respond to the changing regulatory landscape and the effects it has on potential climate change laws. As the scope of the new area emerges, companies may face legal challenges related to the transition to a lower-carbon global economy. The pressure created by climate change law and awareness towards the same, regardless of its success or failure, may affect the operating environment. A growing body of jurisdiction can drive policy changes that facilitate disclosure. It might result in climate-related data held by governments and corporations regarding climate change becoming publicly available and potentially driving climate-related claims.

To dampen the climate change impacts, the companies must initiate climate awareness campaigns in collaboration with the national and international climate agencies. Involving media in spreading an important climate change and its impacts message will enhance the awareness levels amongst the public. Highlighting the launch of a subsidy programme by the company or creating a green source of energy in a local town or initiating a local coastal cleaning drive, or adopting new green technology for new manufacturing line can be some of the initiatives that the companies can highlight can spread a word about and raise the awareness level. Involving the nation’s youth in building an image of corporate sustainability leaders and conducting various activities that spread the message of adopting sustainable living standards will further enhance the awareness levels. Furthermore, brainstorming about implementing the laws that may strengthen implementing climate change laws and discussing the same amongst the public will strengthen the climate awareness campaign.

Despite the difficulties and mixed success of climate change law to date, this global trend is pushing boundaries, prompting policy and behavioural change, and creating a growing body of precedent worldwide. Claimants are bringing novel and creative legal arguments, and, in some cases, courts are demonstrating a willingness to take creative approaches to these issues.

“Just as we caused the climate crises, the bio-diversity crises, and the pollution crises, we can reverse the damage that we have done; we can be the first generation to reimagine, to recreate and to restore nature to kickstart action for a better world.”

Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP

The Bonn Challenge Declaration and the United Nations Declaration of 2021-30 as the “Decade of Ecosystem Restoration at the forefront of the world’s biodiversity and climate change agendas. The Bonn Challenge launched by the Government of Germany and the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN in 2011 has set a significant target of restoring over 350 million hectares of endangered terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems by 2030.

Globally, according to UNEP, the 350-million-hectare restoration initiative is expected to create ecosystem services worth $9 trillion and reduce 13-26 gigatons of atmospheric GHG by 2030. The economic returns are estimated to be nine times the investment cost.

Ecological restoration aims to initiate and accelerate the recovery of the ecosystem after damage, degradation and destruction. It aims to restore self-organizing ecosystems on a path of full recovery. The restoration of the ecosystem intends to help restore destroyed or damaged ecosystems and preserve intact ecosystems. Restorers do not carry out the actual work of restoring the ecosystem. Restoring the ecosystem is an essential contribution to the application of the ecosystem approach. Healthy ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and offer great benefits such as fertile soils, higher yields of timber and fish, and more significant greenhouse gas reserves.

According to the standards and disciplines defined, the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) guidelines for developing and managing ecological renaturation projects describe procedures for implementing ecological renaturation. The SER brooch is a concise explanation of restoration principles, including the cited definitions of restoration, the way restoration plans are carried out and evaluated, the integration of the restoration with related disciplines.

The Society for Ecological Restoration defines ecological restoration as “the deliberate activity of initiating and accelerating the recovery of ecosystems concerning the ecosystem’s health, integrity, and sustainability”.

In the repair and restoration of ecosystems, restorers apply concepts from the field of ecology. Ecological restoration focuses on repairing the damage that human activities have done to natural ecosystems, attempting to restore them to an earlier state, or a state that is closely related to a state that remains unchanged through human activities. It differs from the nature conservation practice, which is to prevent further loss of ecosystems.

Ecological restoration is restoring habitat and ecosystem functions by restoring land and water on which plants and animals depend. Restoration is a corrective step that includes eliminating or changing the causes of ecological degradation and restoring natural processes (e.g. Natural fires, floods, predator-prey relationships) that sustain and renew ecosystems over time.

Intransigent defences against ecosystems, strict conservation and effective recovery strategies are essential to address the extinction crisis. Given that only a few ecosystems on Earth are unaffected by human activity, their restoration promises to contain the biodiversity crisis and ensure that ecosystem services are provided to humanity. However, few studies document the recovery of ecosystems or the speed at which they recover.

Ecosystems and their biodiversity support economic growth, sustainable development, and human well-being and restoration have become essential strategies to increase ecosystem services and reverse biodiversity loss. Due to anthropogenic and natural impacts, the pace of ecosystem destruction is rapid, and billions of dollars are spent annually to restore damaged ecosystems.

Ecological restoration is the human facilitation of the repair of damaged or destroyed ecosystems. Restoring environments can take years to work without human intervention and may never be the same as their intact predecessors, but restoration remains an integral part of the conservation toolbox.

Many restoration projects seek to establish ecosystems from native species, while other projects seek to restore, improve or create certain ecosystem functions such as pollination or erosion control. Whereas nature conservation biology, due to its importance and popularity, focuses on vertebrates (animals), restoration ecology focuses primarily on plants. Since the renaturation ecology focuses on plants, renaturation projects often begin with the formation of plant communities.

For example, the passive recovery of grassland from agriculture is not comparable to the active restoration of forests from agriculture. We could not determine that active recovery accelerates or achieves full recovery, even in some studies that compared recovery with passive recovery in a single place after the same disturbance. The new study recognizes that the restoration of the ecosystem must consider the needs of the people living in the remaining areas.

In reality, the restoration will not restore a complete collection of native species to the full extent of ecosystems’ original structure and function. Restoration can help us achieve Sustainable Development Goals. While we can restore biodiversity, structure, and function to damaged ecosystems, ecological restoration is no substitute for conservation, and the promise of restoration can be used to justify the destruction of unsustainable uses.

The ecology of restoration is the scientific investigation and support of the practice of ecological restoration – the practice of the renewal and restoration of damaged, damaged or destroyed ecosystems, habitats and environments through active human intervention and action. Effective restoration requires an explicit objective or a clear policy that is formulated, accepted and codified.

Every year on June 5, World Environment Day marks the official start of the United Nations Decade to Restore the Ecosystem, a 10-year effort to halt and reverse the decline of the natural world. Restoring forests and ecosystems means reforestation in order to reduce the pressure on forest trees to grow again. Rethinking the way people grow and consume food can also help reduce the pressure on forests.

When healthy natural ecosystems are destroyed, vast amounts of carbon enter the atmosphere. So the first thing to do is stop the gradual destruction of the ecosystem, adds co-author Thomas Brooks, chief scientist of the International Union for Nature Conservation.

At many places, students work to restore ecosystems that have been damaged, damaged or destroyed. A group of landowners in Austria is learning how the climate and ecosystem benefit from tree plantings’ return to the natural cycle of forest growth. The study concluded that complete restoration is 1.3 times more cost-effective if it occurs in high-priority locations than opportunistic approaches. Additionally, the researchers also looked at how to ensure that restoration of the ecosystem does not reduce food production. They found that more than half of the land converted into arable and pasture land could be converted back into a natural ecosystem without affecting food supplies.

Adopting eco-friendly behaviour is the need of the hour to protect our environment. People can usher in small changes in daily practices without dramatically affecting lifestyles, exhibiting a greater preference for clean and green spaces, healthy surroundings, fresh air, clean water, landscaping, recycling waste materials – anything that conserves energy and fosters a healthy link between the human population and nature.

Businesses have a critical role in responding to environmental protection by integrating a precise action plan into their growth strategies. Equitable growth is all about balancing aspects of people, planet and profits – the anchors on which a sustainable and resilient economy gets constructed… Now is the time to integrate sustainability even while being digital, which can take us closer to a green digital economy and restore our ecosystems.

According to a UN study, ecosystem degradation is already affecting the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people – 40% of the world’s population. The World Environment Day 2021 campaign – “Recreate, Reimagine, Restore” – focuses on reversing the degradation of our ecosystems. The future is now, and we need to act fast.