Launch on International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day
January 2026
Every year on January 28, ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ง๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐y invites the world to pause and reflect on one of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change. It is a reminder that the rising concentration of carbon dioxide or CO2 in our atmosphere is not an abstract scientific phenomenon but a daily reality that shapes lives, economies, and ecosystems. Human activities, from the ways we produce and use energy to how we cultivate land and move from place to place, continue to release high levels of COโ, intensifying the greenhouse effect and accelerating global warming. The consequences are felt worldwide, yet their weight is unevenly distributed. Few regions illustrate this more clearly than the dryland Sahel Region in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In this vast semi-arid region, communities live in a close relationship with the climate and rely heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods. Climate change induces temperature rises, rains becoming irregular, which impacts soil fertility, and these impacts ripple quickly through families and entire regions. What might be a gradual shift elsewhere can mean drought, crop failure, pressure on grazing lands, or the loss of vital water sources here. In the Sahel Region, climate change is not a distant threat but a force that shapes daily choices and long-term prospects.
This is why International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day resonates strongly with the mission of the TRANS-SAHARA project. The projectโs work across eight Living Labs is rooted in the understanding that mitigating climate change at global level and strengthening local climate resilience must happen together. Working side-by-side with local communities, TRANS-SAHARA supports the development of practices that can augment water and food security to improve livelihoods: restoring degraded land, using water more efficiently and recharging groundwater aquifers, adopting climate smart agricultural techniques, and integrating renewable energy solutions. These approaches carry the dual benefit of lowering environmental impact while also helping households and communities build greater resilience in the face of climate variability.
But meaningful change doesnโt depend solely on large-scale interventions. The spirit of January 28 also lies in recognising the power of everyday actions at the source of the largest COโ emissions i.e., communities in high-income regions like Europe. Here, shifts in behaviour to reduce energy consumption and waste, rethinking transportation habits, and focusing on less resource intensive consumption in general, can collectively shape a more sustainable future. This future will also be safer, as resource consumption patterns are directly linked to geo-political processes. The day encourages each person and each community to view themselves as part of a larger climate effort, one where even modest step helps to balance the global emissions equation. 7 billion small actions can make a huge impact, making it possible to stop climate change.
The launch of the TRANS-SAHARA MAGLORAMIC Campaign embraces this idea by inviting everyone involved the global community to contribute to a shared journey throughout the year. The campaign aims not only to raise awareness but to connect people, stories, and solutions across regions. By highlighting local innovations and amplifying voices from the Sahel Region in a dialogue with voices from Europe, the MAGLORAMIC Campaign emphasises that mitigation is not just a technical matter, it is a human story, one of adaptation, creativity, and collaboration. In short, evolution through revolution. For the drought conditions impacting the Sahel Region today are increasingly becoming a foreseeable reality in Europe in the next few decades. Therefore, supporting massive global climate change mitigation is in the urgent interest not only of populations in the Sahel Region, but just as much of urgent interest to communities in regions like Europe. The Sahel Region has always been a place of resilience, and the project seeks to build on that strength by fostering a sense of collective purpose and global community-building around climate action.
Beginning the year with a focus on COโ emissions reduction lays the foundation for the months ahead. It encourages reflection, sparks dialogue, and sets a tone of proactive engagement. More importantly, it reinforces a message at the heart of TRANS-SAHARA: the path to a resilient future is shaped not only by global agreements and technologies but also by the daily actions and lived experiences of the communities most affected. As the MAGLORAMIC campaign progresses, each new monthly theme will build on the previous one, creating a collective narrative of hope, progress and shared responsibility across the Sahel Region.
