With Earth Overshoot Day just over two weeks away, out of the regions country’s only Albania has managed to do better than average meaning it leads the way in the Balkans in terms of renewable energy.
Earth Overshoot Day is that date when humans will use up all renewable energy resources for one year and in 2022, it lands on 28 July, earlier than ever before.
Almost all Balkan countries perform poorly in this regard including Slovenia which reached its overshoot day back in April. Serbia was in the red as of Friday and Montenegro on 17 May. North Macedonia ran out around the same time as Serbia on 6 July, but Albania has until 3 November, according to the rankings.
Currently, the world is using natural resources 1.75 times faster than the planet’s ability to replace and restore them. Furthermore, efforts to move towards renewable energy are slow and cumbersome, even considering the need to wean of fossil gas and oil dependency considering the war waged by Russia.
Globally, Qatar was the worst, running out on 10 February while Benin runs out on 26 December. Other well-performing countries include Ecuador, Indonesia, Cuba, and Iraq. Other bad examples include a number of European countries such as Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Czechia.
Global Footprint Network (GFN), the organisation behind Earth Overshoot Day, noted the global imbalance reflects the devastation of ecological resources and the accumulation of waste, but mainly, the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The date is calculated through a scale that evaluates ecological footprint and biocapacity.
The biocapacity of one country consists of biologically productive land and water, while the ecological footprint is measured through demand for plant-based food, meat, and fish, fibre products, wood, as well as space for urban infrastructure and forests that absorb carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels GFN said.
Halving carbon emissions in the energy sector would delay the overall global date by an impressive 93 days as the carbon footprint accounts for some 61% of human’s ecological footprint.
