++CANCELLED++ Shaping a Sustainable World – International Collaboration & Transformation for a Healthy Planet

Where are we headed? Our planet is on fire – literally and metaphorically.

The 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community states that “climate hazards such as extreme weather, higher temperatures, droughts, floods, wildfires, storms, sea level rise, soil degradation, and acidifying oceans are intensifying, threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security. Irreversible damage to ecosystems and habitats will undermine the economic benefits they provide, worsened by air, soil, water, and marine pollution.” Consequently, societies remain extremely vulnerable to economic, health, humanitarian, geopolitical and environmental shocks.
The U.S.’s Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s European Green Deal are regulatory frameworks that counter some of these negative effects. Our global economies have fallen short of balancing economic considerations with planetary health and social equity. Only if economic activities can be decoupled from resource use, will we be able to reach our ambitious targets as agreed during climate and biodiversity negotiations, most notably the Paris Agreement. The world’s eyes will be focused on whether the upcoming COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai (Nov 30 – Dec 12) will live up to climate protagonists’ expectations, deliver tangible results and create the basis for collaboration.
Everything is interconnected. How can independent actors – nation states, civil society and multinational corporations alike – collaborate massively to safeguard the well-being of our species? How can we transform our failing economic operating systems and come out more resilient? Can companies realize the necessary cooperation faster than politics driven by national interests?
Earth4All, an economic foresight initiative under the leadership of several research institutes and think tanks (Club of Rome, Norwegian Business School, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), set out to address some of these questions, culminating in Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity (2022), a Report to The Club of Rome. The analysis focused on two possible scenarios – breakdown (“Too Little Too Late”) or breakthrough (“Giant Leap”) – for the world this century to 2100.
The speakers’ impulse statements will be followed by a conversation moderated by Jörg Geier to further explore the topic.