“We are the last generation that can prevent irreparable damage to our planet,” were the opening remarks of the United Nations General Assembly’s former President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés at the 2019 Climate and Sustainable Development meeting. Citing the conclusion of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, she added: “Eleven years is all we have ahead of us to change our direction.” The stark proclamation aimed to stir member states into taking preventative action, to steer humanity away from irreversible environmental destruction. Such actions are gradually being implemented and exercised around the world, but irreparable and unavoidable damage are not two mutually exclusive scenarios.