Global Footprint Network in collaboration with the Republic of Slovenia are marking a critical date for the planet: this year’s
Earth Overshoot Day lands on August 2nd. This date
is calculated with help of the latest National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, plus additional data to estimate countries’ performances all the way up to 2023.
Earth Overshoot Day’s apparent delay by five days compared to last year’s isn’t all good news, as genuine advancements amount to less than one day. The remaining four days are owed to integrating improved datasets into the accounts’ new edition.
To spotlight Earth Overshoot Day, the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy and Global Footprint Network organized a high-level event at 11 am on August 1
st in Ljubljana (and
online) to discuss the implications of overshoot.
The high-level event enjoys support from key figures including President of the Republic of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28 and IUCN President Razan Al Mubarak, and Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel at UNEP Dr. Janez Potočnik.
“Slovenia, as the first EU country, joins the ranks of countries such as
Ecuador,
Japan, the
Philippines,
Switzerland, and the
United Arab Emirates, leveraging Ecological Footprint data and officially endorsing the metric as a useful tool to steer environmental policy,” affirms Bojan Kumer, Slovenia’s Minister of the Environment, Climate and Energy. He further elucidates that efforts to
reduce Slovenia’s Ecological Footprint by 20% by 2030 will spur greater opportunities for the country amid a future marked by climate change and resource constraints. During the event, Slovenia will announce ways it plans to address its overshoot risks, emphasizing that it is in Slovenia’s interest to climate and resource proof its own economy.
Razan Al Mubarak notes the Ecological Footprint’s utility, “With this metric in hand, any country, region, city, or company can assess its current standing and determine how it can contribute to postponing this date (Earth Overshoot Day).” It provides valuable insights for forward-thinking strategies that address resource security and enable the transition towards a sustainable economy.
The persistence of overshoot has led to land and soil degradation, fish stock depletion, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas accumulation. These symptoms are becoming more prominent every day across the planet, with unusual heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods, exacerbating the competition for food and energy.
With food currently requiring just about 50% of Earth’s biocapacity, it is a particularly significant resource to consider. With a growing human population, and increasing demand for healthy food, the ecological pressure of food will mount, while the capacity for producing food is increasingly challenged due to greater resource stress and climate uncertainty. It is not clear yet how the needed food can be provided under these trends. But there is also great potential – a food system based on circular principles has the potential to
reduce land use for food by up to 71% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 29% per person. These transformations, if applied across the EU, could achieve a self-sufficient and healthy food system. Maybe this is something worth considering for the EU, particularly now as Earth Overshoot Day coincides with the European Parliament’s vote on the Nature Restoration Law.
“The biggest risk, apart from ecological overshoot itself, lies in complacency towards this crisis. Entities that act now are not just safeguarding the environment but future-proofing their economy and the wellbeing of their residents,” underlines Steven Tebbe, CEO of Global Footprint Network.