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Plastic Overshoot Day 2024
EA Earth Action report reveals the date the plastic waste we generate will exceed the world’s capacity to manage it.
11 April 2024
Today (24 July) marks this year’s Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity’s demand on nature surpasses Earth’s capacity to replenish nature during the entire year.
This year, Earth Overshoot Day is the earliest it has ever been.
Calculated by Global Footprint Network, the international sustainability organisation that pioneered the Ecological Footprint, the date is based on the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts maintained by York University.
An Earth Overshoot Day of 24 July means that humanity is currently using nature 1.8 times faster than Earth’s ecosystems can regenerate.
This overshoot occurs because people emit more CO₂ than the biosphere can absorb, use more freshwater than is replenished, harvest more trees than can regrow and fish quicker than stocks replenish, to name just a few ways we are using Earth’s resources.
This overuse beyond what nature can renew inevitably depletes Earth’s natural capital.
It compromises long-term resource security, especially for those who already struggle to access the resources needed to operate.
If all the people in the world lived like citizens of Qatar, Overshoot Day would have fallen on 06 February 2025 – the earliest of all countries. Next come Luxembourg, with an Overshoot Day of 17 Feb, and Singapore (26 Feb).
The UK’s Overshoot Day was 13 May 2025 – two months later than the USA’s (13 March) and UAE’s (16 March).
The country with the latest Overshoot Day (17 December 2025) is Uruguay; before that is Indonesia, whose Overshoot Day falls one month earlier (18 November).
Overshoot isn’t just the driver of biodiversity loss, resource depletion, deforestation and extreme weather, through the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
It also fuels stagflation, food and energy insecurity, health crises and conflict.
Regions, cities, companies and countries that have not prepared for this predictable reality face significantly higher risks.
‘Because of the nature of physics, overshoot cannot last. It will end either by deliberate design or dumped-on disaster. It should not be too hard to choose which one is preferable, particularly in light of so many possible choices.’
DR MATHIS WACKERNAGEL
Global Footprint Network co-founder and board member
While this year’s Earth Overshoot Day is the earliest ever, the date has remained within a narrow window for over 15 years, consistently occurring just after seven months of the year have passed.
The remainder of the year humanity lives by depleting the planet further. Therefore, even as the date holds steady, the pressure on the planet intensifies because the damage from overshoot is cumulative.
Every year’s deficit spending adds to the already existing ecological debt.
From an economic perspective, overshoot is a clear example of a market failure. Such failures hurt everyone.
Overshoot poses a direct threat to over-users, who depend on large volumes of underpriced resource inputs that become increasingly scarce as the market failure persists.
If uncorrected, such market failures stimulate overuse which then leads to disruptions or economic shocks.
The market failure also represents an economic loss for biocapacity providers, who are not adequately compensated.
For overshoot to end by design rather than by disaster, this market failure must be corrected.
‘Earth Overshoot Day reminds us that humanity is over-consuming by borrowing from the future. Unchecked, this will lead to default as the environment will be too depleted to offer everything people need.
‘Avoiding financial and ecological default depends on our ability and willingness to pay back the debt.
‘The good news is that avoiding ecological default is possible: We have the economic ability. Let’s now develop the political willingness from individual consumer behaviour all the way up to governments’ economic strategies.’
DR PAUL SHRIVASTAVA
Professor at Pennsylvania State University and co-president of the Club of Rome
Solutions that #MoveTheDate are available and financially advantageous.
Opportunities exist in five key areas: Cities, Energy, Food, Population and Planet.
For example, cutting CO2 emissions from fossil fuels by 50% would #MoveTheDate by three months.
There are also businesses that #MoveTheDate as they expand. Such businesses may be the ones best positioned to gain value in a future of climate change and resource constraints.
‘We are stretching the limits of how much ecological damage we can get away with. It is now a quarter into the 21st century and we owe the planet at least 22 years of ecological regeneration, even if we stop any further damage now. If we still want to call this planet home, this level of overshoot calls for a scale of ambition in adaptation and mitigation that should dwarf any previous historical investments we have made, for the sake of our common future.’
DR LEWIS AKENJI
Board member of Global Footprint Network
EA Earth Action report reveals the date the plastic waste we generate will exceed the world’s capacity to manage it.
We have now taken more from the Earth than she can regenerate in a year, meaning we will be living in global overshoot for the remainder of 2023.
Rich countries use six times more resources and generate 10 times the climate impacts, far exceeding human needs and nature’s capacity.
Dr Jeremy Leggett warns UK economy risks collapse without urgent investment in nature.
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