Climate emergency, or planetary emergency, is a declaration of the gravity of climate crisis and the imminent global consequences of human-made global warming and climate change. Climate emergency is defined as “a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it”.(1) The term has been listed by the Oxford English Dictionary as the Word of the Year 2019. In November of the same year, 11000 scientists issued a warning that “planet Earth is facing a climate emergency”, largely linked to the “excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle”.(2) The urgency to act has also been amplified by global grass-roots movements such as Extinction Rebellion (XR)(3) or Fridays for Future(4) begun by teenage activist Greta Thunberg(5), that gave rise to worldwide declarations of climate emergency by local and national governments.(6) Yet, while declarations are critical in raising awareness and alerting global leaders to public concern, they need to be followed by emergency response and radical changes in the patterns of economic growth, production, and consumption. In January 2020, The Club of Rome, who first called for such a response in 1972 in its report The Limits to Growth, launched its Planetary Emergency Plan – an action plan to avoid a catastrophe and the existential risk to humanity.(7) The plan calls for major steps in three areas: 1. transforming energy systems, 2. shifting to a circular economy, and 3. creating a just and equitable society founded in human and ecological well-being.(8)
CLIMATE EMERGENCY
