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On World Environment Day, let’s focus less on the environment and focus more on people
13
Jun 2022

On World Environment Day, let’s focus less on the environment and focus more on people

By: Efosa Ojomo and Michael B. Horn

June 5, 2022 marked another World Environment Day.

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, the world still isn’t doing enough to combat human-induced climate change.

We shouldn’t be surprised.

The report follows John Kerry’s worries about the emissions consequences from a Russian war against Ukraine and the international community’s paltry promises at the most recent COP26 conference on climate change.

This is part of a pattern.

A top-down approach that asks people to make sacrifices is unlikely to gain traction and build the political support that leaders need to achieve climate goals.

Until combating climate change aligns with the progress that people are trying to make in their daily lives—from feeding their families and staying warm to traveling for work and fun—the efforts to change how we consume energy will be futile.

This reality calls for a bottoms-up approach to tackling climate change that’s led by entrepreneurs and the pursuit of opportunity, not government action based on coercion and threats.

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