Welcome Remarks
Maria Fernanda Espinosa, President of the 73rd UN General Assembly and former Foreign and Defense Minister of Ecuador
Panelists
Maja Groff, Convenor, Climate Governance Commission
Richard Ponzio, Senior Fellow and Director, Global Governance, Justice and Security Program at the Stimson Center, and Member of the Climate Governance Commission (presenting the Stimson Center’s report “Building Back Together & Greener: Twenty Initiatives for a Just, Healthy, and Sustainable Global Recovery”)
Jimena Leiva Roesch, Senior Fellow and Head of Peace and Sustainable Development at the International Peace Institute, and Member of the Climate Governance Commission
Dhabia Al-Mohannadi, Professor, Texas A&M University at Qatar
Katharine Rietig, Associate Professor in International Politics at Newcastle University, and Member of the Climate Governance Network
Michael Collins, Executive Director for the Americas at the Institute for Economics and Peace
Magnus Jiborn, Head of Research, Global Challenges Foundation, and Member of the Climate Governance Commission
Moderated by
Arunabha Ghosh, CEO at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Member of the Climate Governance Commission
Co-Sponsors: Climate Governance Commission⎯Global Challenges Foundation, the Stimson Center, Global Governance Forum, Global Governance Innovation Network, Group of Women Leaders for Change & Inclusion, CIVICUS, Doha Forum, Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Plataforma CIPÓ, Baha’i International Community, International Environment Forum, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office, We The Peoples Campaign, Together First, ACUNS, Common Home of Humanity, the Institute for Economics and Peace, Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS), and the Coalition for the UN We Need.
The United Nations (UN) Secretary General has urged all nations to declare a state of climate emergency, and has also called the recent Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ⎯which reports the worsening unprecedented, unequivocal and irreversible (for centuries to millennia) effects caused by human-induced global heating ⎯ a “Code Red for Humanity.”
Against the backdrop of the multi-faceted global pandemic recovery, among other global challenges, the gravity and urgency of the planetary climate emergency is becoming more widely understood, and increasingly acknowledged. Science is showing that the civilization-nurturing climatic conditions of our planet –stable for the past approximately 12,000years –are profoundly threatened, and serious changes are happening more quickly than predicted. For example, a range of the earth’s known biophysical systems which regulate the global climate are showing signs of instability earlier than scientists had predicted and may foreshadow the crossing of dangerous and mutually reinforcing tipping points. Such developments telegraph the seriousness of current conditions and the need for rapid action by national governments and the international community to stabilize and protect the earth’s climate system.
Unless we rapidly and radically shift course, the world is heading for catastrophic climate change and possible ecological collapse. Some have called our present predicament a survival crisis for humanity –and certainly for human civilization and for populations as we currently know them –depending on the course of action we collectively choose. Paradoxically, even though solutions exist to mitigate the most devastating effects of the climate crisis –including global governance solutions –they are not being implemented at a pace and scale commensurate with the magnitude and the urgency of the challenge.
Even with this sharpening scientific understanding, the vast majority of the world’s emitters are not yeton track to meet their pledges of emission cuts. It has been observed that the timelines of many nations are not ambitious enough (e.g., focusing on mid-Century targets), and current global governance approaches remain weak, lacking in accountability mechanisms, fragmented and siloed. What new approaches and governance innovations might the international community wish to consider, as a matter of priority? And what strategies can be considered to ensure that these innovations are implemented?