Overshoot Day 2024 falls on August 1: this is the day when humanity exhausts all the natural resources the Earth is capable of producing in a year. After this date, humanity begins to live “on credit” to the planet, using resources that cannot be renewed and accumulating an ecological deficit until the end of the year.
Due to excessive demand for resources, each year this day comes earlier and earlier: only in 1971 did the day on which the annual resource “budget” was exhausted fall at the end of December. In 2023 Overshoot Day was August 2, and at the current rate of resource exploitation 1.7 planet Earths would be needed to meet human demand. The consequences are ones that each of us can already feel every day: average temperatures rise and extreme weather events become more frequent, biodiversity loss accelerates, and health problems for people grow.
The Weight of Transportation on Our Ecological Footprint
To date, the transport sector is responsible for one-third of total global greenhouse gas emissions-a figure very close to that for the European Union, where more than two-thirds of total CO2 is emitted by road transport. The EU’s goals are very specific: to reduce emissions from road traffic by 60 percent by 2030 and 90 percent by 2050, the target date for achieving zero emissions.
It is estimated that through this gradual shift from traditional combustion cars to electric cars worldwide, Overshoot day would be postponed by 2.5 days with an even greater impact if the supply of energy from renewable sources to recharge batteries increased. This is why Ewiva uses 100 percent renewable energy to power its ultra-fast charging network. It is estimated that through the more than 800,000 recharges at Ewiva stations through July, more than 18,000 tons of CO2 emissions have been avoided.
Everyone can do his or her part
In addition to more structural changes, for which governments, institutions and companies are called upon to act, there are small everyday actions that can have an important impact on the sustainable use of resources, if carried out by each of us.
For example, adopting lighting through LEDs in one’s home as well moves Overshoot day forward by almost two days, lengthening the life of clothes and phasing out fast fashion extends the life of the earth’s resources by 6 days, which becomes 13 with the adoption of less wasteful food eating.
These actions may seem too small to dent the planet’s resource overexploitation or reverse the course of climate change, but if we could shift the Overshoot day count forward 6 days each year, by 2050 we could bring resource consumption back to parity and avoid overexploitation.