Global warming has increased the risk of extreme weather conditions such as heatwaves, extreme cold, droughts and heavy rainfall. Each passing year bears witness to the negative effects of global warming on biodiversity, access to water, living conditions, and the health of millions of people, often the poorest on the planet.

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has analyzed more than 200 scenarios where the average global temperature rises by less than 2°C between now and the end of the century.

The scenarios fall into four categories:

1. Significantly improving energy efficiency.

2. Significantly reducing consumption per person.

3. High use of CO2 absorbing technologies.

4. Some combination of these three approaches. These scenarios require that everyone acts. Civil society, the private sector, scientific institutions, local interest groups, individuals… Everyone has its role to play.

Increased cooperation between all different stakeholders will ensure that initiatives and policies created to fight climate change are much more effective.

Picture acts and hopes that everybody will take action, too, through lifestyle changes and consumer behaviour.

Picture supports the humanitarian, artistic, and ecological approach of photographer Rubén Salgado Escudero, creator of the Solar Portraits project and a regular contributor to National Geographic Magazine.

The Solar Portraits photography project tells the visual story of providing artificial light through solar power to people living in remote areas of the planet with little to no access to electricity. The photos show each subject enjoying artificial light for the very first time. Each portrait reveals the useful role solarpowered lighting now plays in their daily lives. More than one billion people across the world still live without access to electricity. This “electricity underdevelopment” could actually represent an opportunity for the countries involved to deploy renewable sources of energy from the outset.

This year, two of Picture's employees joined Rubén in the Philippines. One of them, Florian Delobre, has this to say, “Every year, Picture offers two employees the opportunity to embark on an environmental or humanitarian mission. The “deal” is clear from the start: Picture covers 100 % of the expenses, and the two employees use their paid vacation time. In 2019, the mission to the Philippines was the next logical step in our partnership with Rubén Salgado.

Picture helped to set up solar-powered infrastructure to provide light to a village that does not have access to electricity. It was simply amazing to see the immediate positive impact of our work: on the very evening right after installing the solar lamps, the kids and adults in the village took advantage of the light to continue working, do their homework, and play basketball after 18:00 (6pm).

Everyone around the world should have access to light and drinking water, both are common goods and a fundamental right.