Being eco-conscious is the business of everyone and every corporation

VARIOUS groups and organisations around the world will be marking Earth Day on Friday April 22 by planting trees, reducing food wastage, picking up trash, using recyclable items - generally going green and spreading the word about the dire need to protect the planet and conserve its resources. And, in a move that hopefully will go well beyond the highly symbolic, world leaders will be convening on Friday at the United Nations to sign the Paris climate pact reached last December.

The annual observances of Earth Day should not be seen as a somewhat esoteric event celebrated mostly by bohemian greenies and fringe eco movements. With communities everywhere seeing and experiencing firsthand the effects of global warming - rising sea levels, dry river beds, shifting seasons, droughts, extreme weather, floods (Houston this week), heatwaves (Singapore of late!) - being eco-conscious is the business of everyone (and every corporation). Indeed, the call to inspire awareness of and appreciation for Earth's environment first went out almost 50 years ago - but the damage, depletion and pollution of natural resources have only grown, in scale and severity, over the decades. According to the World Meteorological Organisation in a 2013 report, 2001-2010 was the hottest decade on record - and temperatures have since continued to rise, with 2015 hitting a new all-time high. And studies have found human influences and actions to be the number one cause of global warming, particularly the carbon pollution caused by burning fossil fuels.

The good news is - thanks also to other driving forces such as energy security concerns and rising fuel costs - there has been a surge in global investments in alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro and other clean technologies. UN figures show that inflows of funds into low-carbon power reached a new high of US$285.9 billion in 2015, led by China and India, while investments in new coal and gas capacity were 50 per cent lower than renewables. "We have entered a new era of clean energy growth," said UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, perhaps a tad optimistically. With fossil fuels still the predominant (and cheaper) source of energy worldwide, carbon dioxide emissions will continue to edge up - particularly as population growth and rising standards of living will drive a sharp increase in demand for energy over the next couple of decades. In fact, the UN study saw little chance of a peak in power sector emissions before 2030. As environment scientists see it, without further policy interventions, greenhouse gas emissions will increase for at least another decade.