Saltwater Stoke

Climate scientists and the UN warn that we are dangerously close to catastrophic warming. With temperatures potentially surpassing 1.5°C soon and a +3°C trajectory looming by the century’s end, the dissonance between climate promises and actions is stark. Despite calls for transformative change, economic uncertainties and fluctuating market demands are causing companies to pull back, leaving critical climate goals as side notes rather than strategic imperatives. If we continue along this path, the prospect of averting dangerous outcomes dims, requiring immediate, cohesive action across sectors to avert these trajectories.

The difference between our climate promises and our climate actions is becoming painfully clear. On one hand, companies and governments showcase ambition, promising to cut emissions and pivot to sustainable practices, yet on the other hand, we’re watching as they scale back these commitments. Job cuts are hitting the very people we need most: the scientists, engineers, and specialists in environmental law and finance who drive climate action forward. What should be a hiring surge is becoming a retraction, as companies and investors reel from the financial pressures and delay the long-term projects that could prevent catastrophic warming. The pursuit of profit, combined with economic and political uncertainty, makes green commitments seem optional, convenient only in good times, despite our proximity to irreversible climate consequences.

Economics remains a central, brutal force behind this gap. The lure of immediate financial return outweighs the incentives for climate investments that take years, sometimes decades, to yield measurable benefits. Businesses and their investors see high costs and regulatory uncertainty, and they recoil from the forward-looking investments that climate projects require. This hesitancy is robbing us of the resources, both financial and intellectual, that are essential for a true climate transition. The losses are more than numbers; they are a gradual retreat from an informed, decisive response to our warming world.

All the while, our planet bears witness. Wildfires raze forests and communities, floods swamp cities that once seemed untouchable, and extreme weather cycles arrive with such regularity they’ve become banal, barely even news. Every scientific report tells us the same thing in different ways: without deep, systemic change, we are headed toward a future many will struggle to survive. It’s clear that ambition alone, without the courage to see it through, is an illusion. Net-zero promises and sustainability targets must evolve beyond paper-thin pledges. True action demands that we embed these goals into the fabric of our economy, ensuring that climate responsibility is the foundation, not the footnote, of business.

To truly respond to the climate crisis, we must rethink how we define progress, shifting from short-term gains to investments that serve humanity and the planet. We have the people, the science, and the technology to turn ambition into action. But only if we commit, fully and unconditionally, to this path. Every delay, every layoff, every retreat from these goals marks another step away from a livable future. The need for climate action is not an option, nor should it ever be relegated to the whims of economic fortune. The time for wavering has long passed, and only sustained, relentless action will bring us back from the edge we continue to edge toward, even as the world begs us to listen.