Earth Day's clearest wins are the pledges with specific targets and enforcement: US air pollution is down 79% since 1970 and the Montreal Protocol has the ozon…
Teach-ins, rallies and clean-ups over smog, oil spills and polluted rivers. Organised by Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes.
The EPA opened on 2 December and the Clean Air Act was signed on 31 December. Since 1970, six common air pollutants are down 79% while US GDP grew 338%.
Countries agreed to phase out CFCs. Every country had ratified it by 2009. The ozone layer is on track to recover by about 2040, and 2066 over Antarctica.
The UN climate convention was signed, but carbon dioxide comes from energy, transport, farming and industry, not a short list of chemicals.
The 36 countries fully in it complied with a 5% cut below 1990. But the US never ratified, Canada left, and global emissions kept rising.
Every country writes its own plan, an NDC, and strengthens it every five years.
India set net zero for 2070. Leaders pledged to end deforestation and cut methane 30% by 2030.
8.1 million hectares of forest lost in 2024, 63% above the path. Methane plans deliver about 8%, not 30%.
Talks due to finish by end-2024 failed in Busan and again in Geneva. A new chair was elected in February 2026.
Non-fossil sources passed half of installed capacity five years before 2030, reaching 54.18% by June 2026. But they generated 29.2% of power in 2025-26.
Emissions hit a record 57.7 billion tonnes in 2024. 1.5C needs a 55% cut from 2019 by 2035.
The US exit took effect, and in February the EPA rescinded the endangerment finding behind vehicle climate rules.
60% clean power capacity, a 47% cut in emissions intensity from 2005 and a 3.5-4 billion tonne carbon sink by 2035.
Forests, methane, 30x30, India's capacity goals and the first Paris pledges all fall due in 2030.
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