World Environment Day 2024
How we are committing to solve the climate and biodiversity crisis across this year’s themes of land restoration, desertification and drought resilience.
Led by the United Nations Environment Programme, World Environment Day has grown into the largest global platform for environmental outreach, celebrating environmental action and the power of governments, organisations, businesses, and individuals to create a more sustainable world.
At the University of Melbourne, we work every day to address the challenges posed by drought, desertification and land degradation.
Bridging the Land Gap
Protecting, restoring and sustainably managing the land we already have, as well as prioritising a reduction in carbon emissions over new tree-planting schemes are the findings from The Land Gap Report.
Climate Pledges
Globally, countries’ climate pledges assume that almost 1.2 billion hectares of land can be prioritised for carbon dioxide removal. This land area is larger than the USA and almost four times the size of India.
Climate Mitigation
Roughly half the land pledged for climate mitigation (633 million hectares) requires a land use change. This change will mostly be through plantations and other tree-growing schemes, which could compromise the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Carbon Removals
Carbon removals by these plantations and new forests don’t contribute much to limiting warming, or allow for earlier peaking of the global temperatures expected in coming decades.
Reducing Emissions
A focus on reducing emissions will more effectively mitigate the effects of climate change.
2023 Sustainability Report: Partnering for Progress
Learn more about the University of Melbourne’s sustainability initiatives and achievements in the 2023 Sustainability Report: Partnering for Progress, our second report tracking progress made towards our ambitious climate and environmental targets.
What is your Climate Superpower?
World Environment Day’s #GenerationRestoration acknowledges that all generations now have a responsibility to drive solutions and take measures to counter environmental degradation. Our youth will play an important role in reviving damaged ecosystems and countering land degradation, desertification and drought.
To help them discover what climate superpowers they have – social, natural, political, built, financial, human and cultural – and how they can take steps to create meaningful impact and change, the Climate Superpowers Quiz has been developed for and with young people.
Going back to the future for our food crops
As drought years become more frequent, researchers at the University are discovering ways in which drought-tolerant crops can be developed and widely propagated, continuing to feed the world’s growing population in changing climatic conditions.
Repairing the social fabric after environmental disasters
As the climate changes, restoration of communities after natural disasters is becoming increasingly important. Our researchers, working in the discipline of creative recovery, are helping to understand how the arts can benefit a wide range of communities to recover from various disasters.
