This year’s Earth Day will be celebrated with the official theme—To invest in our planet. With the world abuzz with matters relating to the environment, the investment needs to come in the form of the preservation of the planet. And in doing so, we need to hit the right note in maintaining the ecological balance and using the planet’s resources in a meaningful way. There has been a lot of talk about the increasing global temperature for the past few decades. Still, nothing concrete ever seems to have been achieved despite the industrialised nations pledging to do more to prevent a bad situation from getting worse.

Suitable investments need to come in the form of green energy investments. It is time we shed our reliance on fossil fuels and moved to something that will be more sustainable in terms of its contribution to the environment and the provision of jobs through investment in green technology. The government is the primary party that changes the country’s economy into a greener economy by enacting legislation that will incentivise the private sector and individual citizens that will allow them to make investments in industries to build a more robust future. Governments cannot afford to operate from a myopic viewpoint in pushing for such change; after all, if seen from a long-term perspective, it would make perfect financial sense.

If we are not careful about climate change, the havoc it will wreak will only cause more anguish in the years to come. And the ramifications will be heavier on the poor nations of the world that scarcely have the economic and infrastructural capacity to deal with the devastations as recently witnessed in Nepal. The government embroiled in various political gimmicks finds little time to see the benefits of rapidly developing its green infrastructure. Despite having the potential to generate abundant hydroelectricity sufficient to supply energy to power-hungry neighbours, the country had to endure load-shedding for up to 18 hours a day.

It would be beneficial for Nepal to unshackle its reliance on fossil fuels and take steps to promote the use of green energy, mainly hydro. And in light of the theme for Earth Day 2022, take initiatives to encourage greener investments. The seriousness of ecological balance cannot be emphasised more. And as we mark another day to remind ourselves that this is the only planet that we can thrive on, let the message help us to put things into perspective with the government taking the initiative to lead from the front. Earth Day or no Earth Day, we have a crisis unfolding in front of our eyes, and it is up to us to ensure that we can successfully steer ourselves through this crisis for a better tomorrow for all.