UN and media in Japan team up to turn silent majority into a collective voice to stop global warming

Did you know that an overriding majority, as many as 89% of people worldwide, want their governments to take more ambitious climate actions?

The United Nations Information Centre, Tokyo (UNIC Tokyo) and Japanese media partners have teamed up to launch on 25 June a project to turn the silent majority into a collective voice of the society.

Project “I am one of the 89% who want to stop global warming” capitalizes on a survey conducted in 125 countries which shows that 89% of people worldwide want their governments to take more ambitious climate actions (*1), many are unaware that their view represents the majority. This perception gap could lead to the misunderstanding that others do not support climate action, which may discourage people from taking action and make it harder to speak out in favor of strengthening climate measures.

In response to this issue, the project jointly run by UNIC Tokyo and 136 Japanese media partners under the SDG Media Compact aims to make visible the voices of prominent figures and people from all walks of life who want to stop global warming, and to amplify them into a collective voice of society, thereby encouraging more people to raise their concerns as well as hopes and take actions. The project will run from 25 June through 31 December 2026. UNIC Tokyo and media partners will share messages through their official social media accounts, websites, events, and other platforms.

As of 25 June, more than 30 individuals, including prominent figures such as MIDORI (Violinist / UN Messenger of Peace), Anne Watanabe (Actor / WFP Goodwill Ambassador), Naomi Kawase (Filmmaker / UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador) and Yoshinobu Tsutsui (Chairman, KEIDANREN – Japan Business Federation) as well as people from all walks of life such as children and youth have contributed messages. More messages are expected to be contributed.

This year, as early as mid-May, temperatures exceeding 30°C (summer days) were already recorded across various regions of Japan, along with days exceeding 35°C in western Japan, indicating an early onset of hot weather. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency’s three-month forecast for June to August (*2), this summer in Japan is expected to be hotter than average nationwide. The term “extreme heat day” (kokushobi), newly adopted to refer to days exceeding 40°C, may soon appear in weather forecasts and news reports. Furthermore, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has stated that El Niño is certain to develop in the coming months (*3), intensifying the already warming global climate and causing disruptions to temperature and rainfall patterns worldwide.

As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed in his climate speech on 23 June, climate crisis and energy crisis, both of which have fossil fuels as origin, are unfolding simultaneously, and the massive shipping disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and the war in the Middle East have brought geopolitical vulnerability of dependence on fossil fuels into the limelight. It is high time to turn the voices of most people wishing more ambitious climate actions into a collective voice.