"From Eco-Anxiety to Eco Action & Empowerment"

“I want you to act as if your house is on fire, because it actually is”

57% of surveyed youth today report feeling eco-anxious, Greta Thunberg perfectly summarizes how the world needs to transition from just feeling anxious, to feeling action/empowerment oriented. In fact, surveys have revealed how there is a significant gap between those who feel climate change can be tackled, and those who are empowered to take action. Youth-engagement through strikes, school projects, competitions, conferences, and even direct action has definitely shown results in various areas, but the impact is far too large to handle by just a handful. Having personally experienced these harsh realities, and through research my golden key to this problem is Cross-sector Collaboration.

Starting off with the Agenda 2030, the UN has called upon all sectors of society including government, academia, private, and the public sector to help and achieve the 17 SDGs. My first encounter with these goals was when I was in middle school, we all chose a goal and described how it was important to us, and what we would change. While there were incredible presentations and ideas, the pdf got lost in my desktop and was unfortunately never talked about again. This goes to show how those methods of awareness, while effective on the surface level, didn't bring upon a lot of change. On the other hand, let’s say my high-school collaborated with a national organization like the Niti Aayog in India, along with a couple of businesses, chose an issue and worked on it; it would have yielded better results.

The businesses would provide the funding, the government the scale, and the academia the knowledge. Currently popular projects like the Ganga Action Plan have spent about 4 billion dollars without any considerable results in countries like India. Other examples to support how purely contracts or government initiatives don’t necessarily work include, the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, Great Green Wall in Africa, and even the Billion Tree Tsunami in Pakistan to name a few. The initiatives either lacked proper implementation due to lack of collaboration within state/national governments, lack of innovation, funding issues, and even acceptance amongst local communities. If a cross-sector approach was taken, this might not have been the case.

A successful effort that has been done is the collaboration between Microsoft and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2022. This partnership focused on restoring the oyster reefs off the coast of Washington State, and there was considerably tangible progress as well. Additionally, Unilever worked with WWF since 2010 on various projects to promote sustainable agriculture practices. Another initiative that has achieved success includes the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI). Various salmon farming companies, NGOs, and industry stakeholders came together to show how environmental protection can be balanced with economic growth, the protection of sea life, with sale of seafood.

While there have been numerous examples of success, there are challenges that would come along with this cross sector collaboration for eco-action. The biggest one would be aligning goals and building trust. With global economies and complex political structure, it would be hard to make sure everyone is on the same page, and is ready to work together. This however can be mitigated by pilot programs, high focus on planning, and constant review.

In conclusion, the urgency to move from eco-anxiety to empowered eco-action is undeniable—as if our house is truly on fire. Just hope, and isolated actions wouldn’t solve this issue, strategic, inclusive, and large-scale action is needed. Cross-sector collaboration is the right step in the direction and can create a sustainable future for the generations.