Earth Day in a world of conflict

Tomorrow – Wednesday 22 April - marks Earth Day, raising the profile of environmental protection and climate action. It is also ten years since the Paris Agreement was opened for signatures; that is, the legally binding international treaty aimed at limiting global temperature increases to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It’s a moment when we take stock of how far climate action has come, and it’s probably fair to say that those who were optimistically signing the Paris Agreement ten years ago, and the campaigners who established Earth Day in 1970, would be bitterly disappointed with where we are now.

This is not due to a lack of care or desire for a more sustainable world – at least, I don’t believe so for the majority of people and businesses. The annual COP conferences have maintained momentum and grown engagement with climate action significantly, and many great achievements have been made. But few would have predicted the seemingly never-ending series of crises over the past decade, from the pandemic to the growing number of state-based conflicts reaching their highest number since 1946. 

There have been so many distractions and shifting priorities that it’s no surprise that Earth Day and all it represents seems to have taken a back seat. When in survival mode, there is little room to put sustainability front and centre. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom for the Earth Day pioneers. Sustainability is quietly becoming mainstream and is much less of a fringe cause. Increasingly, sustainability makes economic and business sense, with the current conflict in Iran fuelling a surge in solar uptake, for example. It’s also leading the UK government to double down on renewables, as my colleague Richard Griffiths writes separately here.

The essence of Earth Day still matters to business because expectations have shifted, too. Stakeholders – from employees and investors to regulators and customers – are no longer asking whether companies care about the planet, but what they are doing about it.

Our latest Impact Monitor report found that climate action continues to be viewed as a key imperative for business, with 69% believing that businesses should prioritise carbon reduction over profits and half believing that prioritising climate action over reducing prices should be a focus. And 63-65% feel more positive about organisations and businesses that use renewable energy and demonstrate environmental sustainability. 

For corporates, Earth Day is not about grand pledges. It is a credibility checkpoint. It sits at the intersection of ESG reporting, employee engagement and reputation management. It is a moment that can reinforce long‑term sustainability strategy. The companies that stand out are not those that “celebrate” Earth Day the loudest – but those that use it to say something real, grounded and future‑focused.

Earth Day won’t be stealing any headlines from global politics, conflict and the economy, but scroll down a bit further and you’ll see there is a pragmatic shift to a more sustainable world and a quiet undercurrent of climate action pushing things along.