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Climate Governance Commission: Spotlight on Phase II

Project Note

Contributed by Climate Governance Commission

Posted 14 December 2022

   

The Global Governance Innovation Network is a strategic partner of the Climate Governance Commission. The Commission aims to fill a crucial gap in confronting the climate emergency, by innovating and proposing feasible, high impact global governance solutions for urgent, exponential climate action, to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C or below. The Commission seeks to build on and add value to existing knowledge, and to ongoing work on climate and the environment, by focusing specifically on improvements in the global governance architecture to facilitate or leverage high impact climate solutions identified by the Exponential Roadmap and other leading initiatives.

Climate Governance Commission Phase II Commissioner Chairs:

  • The lead Chair: Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders; formerly President of Ireland, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Climate Change, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
  • Co-Chair: Maria Fernanda Espinosa; formerly President of the United Nations General Assembly, and holding various Ministerial positions for Foreign Affairs, Defense, Cultural and Natural Heritage, Government of Ecuador
  • Scientific Co-Chair of the Commission: Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Global Online Report Launch

Read the 2023 Report of the Climate Governance Commission: Governing Our Planetary Emergency

Find out more and watch the Global Online Report Launch featuring alongside other Commissioners and discussants:

  • Mary Robinson: Lead Co-Chair of the Climate Governance Commission and Chair of the Elders, Former President of Ireland
  • Maria Fernanda Espinosa: Co-Chair of the Climate Governance Commission and Executive Director of Global Women Leaders Voices, 73rd President of the UN General Assembly
  • Johan Rockström: Scientific Co-Chair of the Climate Governance Commission and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
  • Maja Groff: Convenor, Climate Governance Commission

Climate Governance Commission at COP28

With more than ten events at COP28 in Dubai, as well as articles, media releases, and support with negotiations both formally and informally, the Climate Governance Commission convened or participated in sessions with diverse partners, including:

  • Strengthening Climate Governance: Tightening the Screws on Existing Architecture
  • Sustainable Resort Learning Retreat and Strategy Meeting for Proposed Climate and Planetary Boundaries Leadership Center
  • 10 Must-Have Initiatives (co-hosted by the Earth League, and Global Futures Laboratory)
  • Creating a Sustainable 'Zero Carbon Footprint' World: Accelerating & Connecting Business, Technology and Governance Solutions
  • Governing our Planetary Emergency: Key Perspectives and Proposals from the 2023 Climate Governance Commission Report
  • Rising to the Challenge: Courageous Thinkers and Doers for a Sustainable Future
  • Aligning Principles with Action: How to Make Clime Change Solutions a Reality (co-hosted with the Baha'i International Community)
  • The Role of Education in Building Climate Resilience (co-hosted by Dubai Cares, and the Global Center on Adaption)
  • "Cleaning Up" is Part of the Solution: 10 Reasons for PARIS+10, at the Portuguese Pavilion
  • Governing our Planetary Emergency: Sparking Governance Innovation and Bold Leadership for a Workable future, at the Ecuadorian Pavilion

Doha Forum 2023

At the 2023 Doha Forum, the "Governing Our Climate Future" session featuring the Climate Governance Commission considered how addressing the global challenge of climate change and the overstepping of 6 or the 9 Planetary Boundaries requires more closely coordinated international governance. Find out more and watch the session.

In PassBlue: The UN's Yearly Climate Gathering Must Change to Tackle the Planetary Emergency

As COP28 begins on Nov. 30, Commission essayists write that the model for the annual United Nations climate conference needs to change to better grapple with an unprecedented "planetary emergency."

Read the PassBlue piece here.

UNGA78 Statement

The world faces a deepening planetary emergency – and is on a reckless path toward catastrophic climate change – having already over-stepped six of nine scientifically-identified planetary boundaries. A continued failure to address the underlying causes of this emergency—such as fossil fuel-based economies, resource waste/overconsumption and the destruction of nature—will have further devastating effects for all of humanity, triggering potentially irreversible tipping points, with dangerous consequences for planetary stability, both social and ecological. A system-wide approach to solving the climate crisis is required now, ensuring reliable climate and planetary boundary governance for the Earth as a whole.  

Read "Charting a Safe Path for a Workable Future" statement of the Climate Governance Commission at the 78th UN General Assembly High-Level Week

Villars Meeting

The Climate Governance Commission, whose high-level Phase II is co-chaired by Mary Robinson, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, and Johan Rockström, and led by Maja Groff, convened the second meeting of the Commission, from 27-28 June at the Villars Institute in Switzerland. In finalizing its 2023 Report in time for COP-28 in Dubai (30 November – 12 December) – and a preview of its recommendations at UNGA High-Level and Climate Week (18 – 22 September) in New York, topics discussed included:  

  1. Conceptual Frameworks: International Governance Perspectives as a Vital Necessity.
  2. Near-term International Governance Reform Recommendations.  
  3. Building International Climate Governance for the Long-Term.  
  4. Theories of Change and a Strategy for Climate Governance Innovation. 
  5. Youth and Intergenerational Perspectives on Climate Governance. 
  6. Economic and Financial Institutional Transformations for Climate Action. 
  7. Climate TRACE, MIT En-Roads, and the Arid Cities Network. 

Launching Phase II at COP27

1. The Climate Governance Commission partnered with the Future Economy Forum, which hosted ten Solutions Dialogue evenings during COP27, with a range of evenings focused on the work and partners of the Commission, including:

·      An interactive session, with, amongst others, President Mary Robinson, exploring how practical wisdom, legal activism and enhancing international frameworks can create conditions that scale behaviour change of companies and economies towards a new economic mainstream, integrating economic development and business success with the regeneration of people and societies, nature and the climate.

·      A major global education launch, in collaboration with Dubai Cares, the Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO, UNICEF, Generational Unlimited, the LEGO Foundation, the Aga Khan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the 17 Rooms Initiative, among others, to ensure that by COP28, every country embraces the vision of a climate-smart education system.

·      An event on Rapidly Scaling the Regenerative Economy & Climate Solutions, co-convened by the Climate Governance Commission, Future Economy Forum and the Exponential Road Map, with speakers including: Lindy Fursman, Chief Advisor, Climate Change,  Ministry for the Environment – Manatū Mō Te Taiao, New Zealand; Bertrand Piccard, Serial explorer and clean technology pioneer; Stuart Templar, Director for Global Sustainability, Volvo; Andreas Follér, Head, Sustainability, Scania.

2. Climate Governance Commission Convenor, Maja Groff, participated in a Global Futures Panel, together with Johan Rockström, Peter Schlosser and others, where the preliminary outcomes from the 2022 Global Futures Conference (GF22) were presented, highlighting the ‘must-have’ outcomes and ‘must-do’ actions that can accelerate the necessary transformations to a safe, just and habitable planet for all. The presentation can be viewed here.

3.    Cambridge University and key other partners of the Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI) hosted the Climate Law and Governance Day, on operationalizing the Paris Agreement, where the Climate Governance Commission participated as an expert panellist.

4.    Maja Groff, Climate Governance Commission Convenor, joined the live global launch of the We Can Do It campaign, where the undersigned are pushing for rapidly phasing out global fossil-fuel subsidies, and for re-directing those trillions of dollars to investments that will benefit people and help green solutions scale faster.

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